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Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery - British Volume, Vol 91-B, Issue 2,
143-150.
doi: 10.1302/0301-620X.91B2.20995 Copyright © 2009 by British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery The management of patients with painful total knee replacementA. D. Toms, MSc, FRCS, (Trauma & Orth), FRCS(Ed), Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon1; V. Mandalia, MS(Orth), DNB(Orth), FRCS, FRCS(Trauma & Orth), Knee Fellow1; R. Haigh, MRCP(UK), Consultant Rheumatologist and Senior Clinical Lecturer1; and B. Hopwood, MB, BS, MRCA, Pain Specialist11 Exeter Knee Reconstruction Unit, Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK. Correspondence should be sent to Mr A. D. Toms; e-mail: andrew.toms{at}rdeft.nhs.uk The management of patients with a painful total knee replacement requires careful assessment and a stepwise approach in order to diagnose the underlying pathology accurately. The management should include a multidisciplinary approach to the patients pain as well as addressing the underlying aetiology. Pain should be treated with appropriate analgesia, according to the analgesic ladder of the World Health Organisation. Special measures should be taken to identify and to treat any neuropathic pain. There are a number of intrinsic and extrinsic causes of a painful knee replacement which should be identified and treated early. Patients with unexplained pain and without any recognised pathology should be treated conservatively since they may improve over a period of time and rarely do so after a revision operation.
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