Friday Q&A: Pain After a Total Knee Replacement
Q: I have had a TKR (total knee replacement) in March this year (5 months ago). I still have pain and swelling in the repaired knee, mainly on the outer side and behind the knee. Is there any yoga exercise recommended to stabilize the knee and make it healthy? A: I am sorry to read that your Total Knee Replacement (TKR) has not resolved all the issues you hoped it would have accomplished. Literature review states that 90% of all patients are pain free after six months, but sometimes the recovery period can take a full 12 months. Ten percent of TKR patients are not pain free within this time period. Pain is a symptom of an underlying problem. The cause of the pain needs to be thoroughly addressed by the surgeon who performed your surgery. My advice would be to return to him and have him perform a complete exam, including diagnostic studies (X-ray, CT scan, blood work) to rule out any underlying infection and to ascertain the alignment of the knee prosthesis. The other thing you might co...