Total knee replacement is 1 of the most successful procedures in all of medicine due to its success in relieving chronic hurting and restoring mobility and function. That is why more than 600,000 knee replacement surgeries are performed each twelvemonth.

Withal, a small percentage of articulatio genus replacement surgeries fail, and when that happens, patients should seek the advice of a human knee revision specialist as soon every bit possible.

According to Bernard Stulberg Thou.D. of the Spine and Orthopedic Institute at St. Vincent Charity Medical Middle, continued knee pain tin can signal failure of an implant device, a condition that requires timely intervention to avoid farther complication and bone loss.

Approximately 10 per centum of patients crave a revision – a procedure in which the surgeon removes the original implant and replaces it with a new ane – inside the first ten years. More than half of the 22,000 knee revision surgeries performed each year are washed within two years of the initial knee replacement surgery.

"If you lot are having knee hurting afterwards a replacement, information technology is important to observe out if the implant is functioning the way information technology should," Dr. Stulberg said. "Pain that occurs early after surgery tin signal the presence of infection, problems related to the way the implant anchors to bone, or the way the mechanism is working."

"Surgeons who perform knee joint replacements may recognize that persistent pain post-obit surgery is uncommon and might require farther intervention, but they may not experience sufficiently trained in revision surgery to know what that intervention should be, and the timing of that intervention," Dr. Stulberg connected. "When the cause of an early on failure is a poorly performing device, identifying the source is important because, without intervention, the problem could lead to pregnant loss of os and ligament instability. That farther complicates the required revision surgery."

That is what happened to Becky Parker later she had both knees replaced v months apart in 2015. Simply a few months after her second surgery, Becky started having pain and swelling in her knees and ankles.

Unaware of the possibility of an implant failure and thinking the swelling was a new event, Becky went to run across a rheumatologist where she lives in Toledo. The medico did not accept x-rays of the knees, despite the knees being the primary source of her hurting, and gave her cortisone injections in her bloated ankles.

This began a more than 2-year journey for Becky, being shifted from doctor to doc in search of relief. She received numerous cortisone injections in her ankles, prescriptions for physical therapy and even had vein ablations in both legs. None of this helped. Becky continued in abiding pain, even having to apply a shopping cart to walk merely to make it through her work day at a local home improvement store.

It wasn't until she broke downwardly in tears in appointment that the doctor paused and examined her knees, which at this point were severely bowed. He x-rayed both knees and gave her the devastating news that the implants had failed and were essentially coming apart. He encouraged her to seek out a revision specialist since he did not perform the procedure.

Becky began researching surgeons in Ohio who specialize in knee revision surgery. Because revisions are more circuitous than the original genu replacement, few surgeons perform revision surgery and even fewer specialize in it. The procedure requires boosted preoperative planning, specialized tools, greater surgical skill and more than time to perform.

Dr. Stulberg, one of the nation's leading experts on revision surgery, was the get-go surgeon to announced in Becky's online search. Given Dr. Stulberg's prominence in the field, Becky feared it would take a long time to become an engagement, and so she was shocked when she was quickly able to get in to encounter him.

In Becky'south instance, the trouble stemmed from the design of the implant, which immune for instability and aseptic loosening. This ways the bond betwixt the bone and the implant breaks down, fragmenting the cement. Once fragmented, the trunk attempts to digest the cement (glue) particles and so too begins to digest bone. Aseptic loosening post-obit knee replacement surgery is i of the leading causes for revision.

Significant os loss is ane of the largest challenges for surgeons in revision surgery considering the bone itself starts to go weaker after the offset ten millimeters of os loss. This leaves less bone to support a new implant. The removal of os during the initial replacement surgery, coupled with os loss from the failed implant, makes it difficult for surgeons to use standard full knee implants. For revision surgery, surgeons utilize specialized implants, assuasive the surgeon to go more secure bonding to bone likewise as improved stability of the mechanism.

Becky's bone loss, particularly in the right side, was significant in large part due to the length of fourth dimension between when the implant began to fail and when the failure was finally identified. To repair the right knee, Dr. Stulberg utilized a surgical navigation system and specialized revision implant – a arrangement which Dr. Stulberg helped develop – to allow him the flexibility to adjust the position of the implant and expertly conform the tension of the surrounding ligaments. Afterwards a successful recovery, Becky had the left knee repaired past Dr. Stulberg 5 months later.

Nine months after surgery, Becky is dorsum at piece of work on her anxiety for 8 hour days without hurting. Her friends and family go on to comment on the transformation of her legs, which are at present in-line postal service surgery.

"People used to always comment that I was so 'bow-legged' and now they are so glad to see me walking upright," Becky said. "I would not be walking today without Dr. Stulberg – he is a miracle worker."

To acquire more than nigh revision surgery or to schedule an date with Dr. Stulberg, contact his function at 440.248.1297.