staph infection in knee

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Just joined this group because my husband had a staph infection in his right

knee and now, a year and a half later, is ready for a total knee replacement.

His knee has deteriorated considerably since the infection but the doctors we

saw didn't want to think about replacing his knee for at least a year from the

time the infection ended, supposedly because of the fear of reinfection. When

the year was up he had a slow healing ulcer on that leg so, again, the docs

wouldn't touch him. Now he's ready and we have seen a trauma surgeon in Spokane

who is willing to take this on, but he's talking about two surgeries, one to

prepare the surfaces of the bones (there's no cartilage left but there are

cysts) and collect some material to culture, and the following surgery to put in

the total knee replacement.

I'm just wondering if anyone in this group has gone through a staph infection in

a joint and then had a joint replacement. If we do this two phase replacement

it would mean that Jack could not use his right leg at all for as long as three

months! That would be if the doc finds any infection. He's guessing it could

take as long as three months to wipe it out and to get the sed rate readings

back down to normal and his c reactive protien as well. Jack is balking at the

idea of hoping around on one foot after dragging around on two canes for a year

and a half. He doesn't think he has the strenght or balance to pull that off

even with a crutch, so then it would be one of those scooters, I presume, but my

husband doesn't want to be totally incapacitated, unable to exercise, etc.

Whew! We sure can get some problems, can't we?

If anyone out there has had a staph infection in a joint, we'd be very

interested to hear how it went for you. These staph infections can be very

distruction.

Thanks,

Mama Cat