Knee Pain After Surgery

What causes knee pain?

As high-use, load-bearing joints, your knees are prone to injury and pain caused by wear and tear. Younger people and more active people are more susceptible to the kind of stress-related injuries that affect the stabilizing ligaments of the knee. This includes a torn or sprained ACL, MCL, or meniscus, or any other injury resulting from twisting, turning, or pivoting too quickly.  

Older people, or those who are less active, are more likely to experience knee pain caused by ongoing wear and tear, including degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis, tendonitis, and bursitis.

A few other common causes of knee pain include:

• Patellofemoral syndrome
• IT band syndrome
• Septic arthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Osteoarthritis

Is post-surgery knee pain common?

Patients who suffer from chronic knee pain that doesn’t respond to other treatments often view surgery as their only remaining option. For most of these patients, knee surgery is a highly effective procedure that helps reduce or completely eliminates their pain.

A total knee replacement surgery (TKR) has, on average, a 93% success rate for pain relief, and only about a 2% complication rate. In most cases, knee replacements perform well for over two decades.

Nevertheless, complications are always a possibility. Some knee surgery patients rarely feel pain following surgery but still experience discomfort on occasion. That may be because knee surgery can’t always completely resolve some of the underlying conditions that cause knee pain.

How is post-surgery knee pain addressed?

The experienced team of interventional pain physicians at Garden State Pain & Orthopedics specialize in treating patients who suffer from knee pain after having knee surgery. They provide a full scope of treatment options, including:

• Synvisc-One® injections

Synvisc-One is a therapeutic solution that contains hyaluronate, a substance that occurs naturally in the fluid that lubricates and cushions your knee joint. The pain management specialists at Garden State Pain Control use Synvisc-One injections to relieve post-surgery knee pain caused by osteoarthritis.

• Genicular injections

Genicular nerve block injections are commonly used to address knee pain both before and after surgery. After injecting a small amount of anesthetic on the genicular nerves, your pain management physician treats the nerves with radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which helps restore knee function and alleviate pain.

• Steroid injections

Steroid injections — usually in the form of cortisone shots — can temporarily help relieve post-surgery knee pain caused by bursitis, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis.

• DRG spinal cord stimulation

Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) spinal cord stimulation involves surgically placing a device called a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) directly over the dorsal root ganglion, which helps carry pain signals from your lower limbs to your brain. The device sends a current through the DRG that interrupts pain signals.

• PRP injections

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections help alleviate post-surgical knee pain while restoring function. The therapy, which uses a small amount of your own blood plasma injected directly at the source of pain, harnesses the power of highly-concentrated growth factors to promote healing and rapid soft tissue, cartilage, and bone regeneration.