I am a 43 yr old woman, had THR 3.5 weeks ago due to congenital hip dysplasia which began causing pain around 38 yrs of age. Hip feels great but leg is numb - inner thigh,knee and shin all the way to ankle. Foot is fine. Cannot kick lower leg out at all from sitting, or raise leg lying down. Concerned that this is atypical. If problems are due to nerve damage, will it most likely get better in time? How much time? Months? Years?? Leg has felt pretty much the same since the moment I woke after surgery. Seeing doc in 3 days.

-- Deborah Facteau (duke8659@aol.com), June 28, 2003

Answers

These are specific questions that you need to address with your surgeon. In general, most nerve injuries aobut a total hip replacement come about from a stretching of teh nerve from repositioning the hip. It is a recognized potential complication, but not common. Also, in most instances it does completely recover, but can take up to 6 months.

-- David Hungerford (dhunger@jhmi.edu), August 06, 2003.

Deborah, I hope that by this time you have improved and your condition is better. I have to say that I partly hope this so that I will be encouraged. I have the exact symptoms that you describe following THR on March 16. The doc suspects that he bruised the femoral nerve with the retractor during surgery. I am a 49 yr. old female who had hip dysplasia all my life without knowing it! Just sucked it up till it became unbearable this winter. Anyway, the prognosis given for me is that the nerve may or may not regenerate and may take months or years if it does. With PT, I can kick the leg out about 2 inches while sitting. No luck at all with raising the leg from the horizontal. Can you tell me if you found anything to help? This is very frustrating as I was so looking forward to becoming active again. Best of luck to you! C. Cool

-- Cindy Cool (cidcool@comcast.net), April 16, 2004.