I had both of my knees replaced a year ago due to AVN. Yesterday went for a follow up with my ortho and he found one of the knee caps is fractured. I have neither fallen or kneeled on the knee cap to cause a fracture. I should mention both hips have also been replaced due to AVN. We found a fracture in one of the bones in my feet in June that again we could see no cause for (dropping anything on it, falling, etc.) My surgeon says he willhave to surgically repair the knee cap fracture so the plastic prosthesis for the knee behind the knee cap doesn't loosen. Has anyone ever had this happen?

-- Helen Prochilo (willysgrandma@hotmail.com), September 17, 2002

Answers

It is difficult to determine the pathology of the fracture without viewing your x-rays. It certainly is possible for a fracture to occur without trauma, although trauma is most often the cause of a fracture. Your situation can be caused by a number of things, bone quality, activity level, anatomy etc..

-- Dotsie Czajkowski (hkhanuj1@jhmi.edu), October 22, 2002.

During my knee replacement two years my physician fractured my kneecap. He said my bones were too dense and the kneecap just fractured. It had to be wired together. I was doing fine postop until 8 weeks later and I started experiencing severe pain. Apparently my therapist who was very aggressive had managed to loosen the wires in the kneecap. Consequently I had to "wait until the kneecap healed" which took 9 months. The doctor then had to go back and remove the wires. THe surgery required the exact same incision that the TKR had required. To this day I am still in pain from that kneecap and when I do any activity at all it becomes stiff and very sore.

-- jennifer konstanzer (jenkonstanzer@mindspring.com), June 27, 2004.