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When to Seek Medical Care

Call your family doctor or orthopedist if you develop gradual pain that feels like slippage in your knee. This generally is an urgent problem, but not an emergency.

Call your doctor if you notice unexpected drainage from or poor healing of a recent surgery, increasing swelling, or warmth.

Go to the hospital’s emergency department if you experience any of the following:

• A fracture or dislocation after a fall
  
  
• New swelling
  
  
• New pain while resting
  
  
• Redness, or warmth at a joint suggesting infection
  
  
• Swelling, pain, or redness below your knee that suggests a clot in your vein (deep venous thrombosis or DVT)