Knee Replacement Infections May Necessitate Amputation

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Total knee replacement candidates should know the complications of knee replacement surgery include leg amputation

Monday, January 14, 2019 - Orthopedic physicians eager to rush nearly every patient with an arthritic knee into total knee replacement surgery rarely discuss the array of complications people are experiencing from the procedure and the potential malfunctions of the device. Doctors stress the features and benefits of having this expensive and questionable device implanted with the zeal of a used car salesman wearing a white coat and stethoscope. What is omitted is an explanation of how an unacceptably high number of knee patients that have received the DePuy knee replacement device has had to undergo second revision surgery, so many in fact that it made financial sense for the company to totally redesign the knee based on patient complaints and lawsuits against the company. DePuy knee attorneys handling claims nationwide can answer many questions in regards to DePuy knee lawsuits.

The complications that may arise from total knee replacement surgery are frightening and include the usual medical problems that stem from major surgery such as developing blood clots that may proceed to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism, infection lasting days or weeks at the surgical site, nerve damage caused by the surgery, bone and tissue loss, and fracture of the tibia or femur from hammering the knee device into the marrow of the existing bone. Other complications include an incredible amount of pain for up to one year even if all goes as planned. Stiffness and lack of an acceptable range of motion can persist for over a year unless the fluid surrounding the artificial knee is regularly drained. DePuy knee patients have even reported having to have their leg amputated above the knee and others have reported pain so great that they wish they had.

Such serious complaints drew the attention of the National Institute of health that published the findings of orthopedist E. Carlos Rodriguez-Merchan, MD, PhD, in October of 2015, "Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a serious complication of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Control of infection after a failed two-stage TKA is not always possible, and the resolution of infection may require an above-knee amputation (AKA) or a the-knee (KF)."

The doctor continues saying that "Periprosthetic joint infection has become the most common cause of failure following total knee arthroplasty (TKA)," and that such an uncontrollable prosthetic joint infection may require a total leg amputation above the knee. Before attempting an above the knee amputation knee patients are now treated with a two-stage procedure in an attempt to destroy the infection and save the lower leg. Knee patients with a chronically infected knee have an "antibiotic-loaded spacer" inserted in order to fight the infection. Patients with artificial joint infection attempting this method of treatment often experience a high degree of bone loss that can require the patient to wear lift shoes and to walk with a walking aid. Unfortunately, "complete eradication of prosthetic joint infection may require an above-the-knee-amputation. While amputation may be unpopular with patients it provides a greater ability to reconstruct, with an external prosthesis, a functioning joint."

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