Quad muscles not working after knee surgery

Reads as if you have got an indifferent surgeon there. How about a decent Physio clinic, a sports clinic used to dealing with longer term problems. You have to pay but it’s worth a try. What about your local gym?

hi bryn

so sorry to hear this...i know exactly what you are going through...dont know if you have seen any of my posts but i had a similar op and now a few years down the line i have no quad power at all...i have had mris, nerve conduct studies, xrays, ive seen various consultants/ physios etc...and all i seem to keep getting told is that the messages arent getting through!!!

dont get me wrong, do not give up hope, i am apparently an exceptional case as my consultant told me last week and he has never seen anything like it!! are you in wales? jus wondered with your name...im in north wales and today went to RJAH in gobowen who are great, they have made me a KAFO for stability etc...but im determined to get this quad back....trouble is you cant do the exercises to strengthen when you cant do them at all...no starting point!! i cant do a straight leg raise at all...not even a little bit...physios keep telling me you cant work with something that isnt there..... i refuse to give up hope so would be very interested to hear more about your story...and just to let you know you are not alone...some great supportive people on this forum....but i do know exactly what you are going through....i too can walk, but my leg gives way, resulting in me falling and breaking my kneecap twice...so im now in this brace...but desperate to get back to playing squash etc as ive put so much weight on and it is so depressing...

but i do believe in trying to stay optimistic and leaving no stone unturned

there must be something the marvels of medicine can do

stay strong

helen x

Sounds like me but be thankful your not in my shoes. This is my suggestion based on what I have been thru.My last TKR was May 9th 2016 the surgeon I had was great we got along almost like friends but he retired.and referred me to another surgeon. As time wore on my knee was starting to hurt more then normal and I would send the Dr. messages about the pain and swelling I even spoke to him several times about my knee  he did absolutely nothing he said my labs looked good and the x-rays looked great he refused to even exam my knee everything that looked good was based on what the last surgeon had taken. Finally I decided enough is enough if you have lots of swelling something is wrong it just does not happen for a reason. Finally I decided to look for another Dr. what was tough was finding a Dr. that would  exam my knee since I have had 17 surgeries all on the L knee. Finally I found one the Dr. took a look at my knee and he thought I had an infection and he wanted some lab work done and wanted me to have a bone scan done. The labs came back perfect however the bone scan was bad. It does not say what is exactly wrong but it show whether or not there you have a problem or not. Turns out the implant is loosening and or failing. Sorry for the detail but just because one Dr says the MRI's show nothing along with x-rays etc it does not mean there is not a problem. I am glad I switched Dr's but because of what was found now I have to see a specialist since I have had so many TKR once this one comes out I will not have enough bone left for the next implant to get mounted on. None of this is fun but if I would have listened to the one Dr. that said everything is great how much worse would things have gotten before it really got bad??

Did you take physical therapy? Sounds like you need to rebuild the ligaments and tendons. I've known a number of people who have had various meniscus tears and all had therapy of some type.

hi bryn

i had 5 total knee replacements to left leg. quad is dead cant straight leg raise at all. had scan last wk waiting on results. its so hard yo find someone with this problem

BRYN . i am assuming that the doctor has checked that your knee cap has not slipped to the side. i have just had a TkR and have not been able to lift my leg since surgery. It is because my knee cap is on the side. i have to get a knee brace to try and push it in place and if that doesnt work more surgery.

A week ago i had knee surgery to replace my ACL tendon, repair my torn MCL and repair the meniscus. Within 5 days i was in physical therapy. First thing they started on was "waking up" my quad muscle. So from what i can understand (not being in the medical field) is that the quads are getting signals from nerve sensors near the knee telling them there is swelling and an injury, so don't work while the signals coming from the brain are telling the quads to work. It's a much shorter path from the knee to the quad muscle so the quad muscle is hearing a lot more of that signal. Therefore you have to retrain the quad muscle to listen to the brain. We are doing that in therapy by using electrical stimulation in the quad muscle while i am trying to flex the quad. The electrical stimulation is cyclic, it is on for about 20 seconds and i flex the quads, then there is about 10 seconds in which there is no electrical and i relax the quad. I do this for around 10 minutes every appointment. I'm just guessing at the times, i haven't been counting. I'm 11 days out from surgery (been through 3 physical therapy appointments) and the quads muscle ate making great improvements each time.

I hope that can lead you in the direction of getting some help.

Have you had any further update re your condition. I also had a total knee replacement and after months of physio and further test the muscle around my knee is getting even weaker. These included MRI tests, nerve tests and almost everything else you can think off. My consultant orthopaedic surgeon says there is no more they can do. I had to accept this at the time but my life is becoming unbearable. I am unable to do most of the things I used to do. Particularly gardening and golf or even walking.

The consultant did mention he had another patient who has the same condition as me.

You would think that there is someone or something can help.

I wish I left me knee as it a was.