Knee Joint Replacement Symptoms

• Many people who fall after having a knee replacement break the bone below the new joint on which the new knee is anchored. Pain and swelling occur at or near the site of the knee joint replacement.
  
  
• Pain can occur gradually as the new joint develops wear patterns that interfere with the smooth function of your knee.
  
  
  • Slippage can cause bony surfaces to move opposite each other and cause pain.
    
    
  • This pain increases the more steps you take and decreases when you sit.
    
    
  • This pain of movement differs from the normal start-up pain that occurs in the first 3-6 months after knee replacement and that decreases over the first few steps.
    
    
  • Infection will cause pain, along with frequent redness and swelling at the joint, even when you are at rest.
    
    
  • Often fluid will collect at the knee joint from infection and cause a boggy swelling. Fluid may not accumulate with every infection.
    
    
  • Fever may occur.
  
  
• Dislocating the knee will cause pain.
  
  
  • Deformity of the joint will be obvious.
    
    
  • A dislocation may damage adjoining nerves, muscles, and blood vessels and impair their function. The popliteal artery, which carries the entire blood supply to your lower leg and foot, can be injured or pinched shut. Nerves to your lower leg can be cut or injured, causing your lower leg to become numb (paresthesia), weak (paresis), or paralyzed. Arteries can be partially or totally blocked, eventually causing pain, the lower leg to turn pale and cold, poor or no pulse, and the leg to swell.
    
    
  • Blood clots tend to form during the period ("post-op," or "post-operatively") when you cannot move following a knee replacement.
    
    
    • Clots become progressively less common with time.
      
      
    • A clot in your vein generally causes new pain, swelling, or redness in your lower leg.
      
      
    • The greatest concern is that the clot will travel through your veins and could lodge in your lung (pulmonary embolism).