Pain persisting after surgery
Pain Knowledge 3 aims to help you understand why pain persists after surgery.
Pain persisting after surgery (or persistent post-surgical pain PPSP) usually refers to someone like you who is experiencing daily pain that occurs in the same area of your body where your surgery took place or pain that is referred from the site of your surgery.
After knee replacement surgery, you will have ongoing pain in the knee that was operated on which may have spread towards the hip, or ankle or over your whole body.
Persistent refers to pain lasting for longer than 3 months after surgery, which is the time that the tissues that were operated on are expected to have fully healed from the surgery.
For some people, the impact the pain has can range from being mild, with little interference in activities or enjoyment of life to severe with significant life changing interference in activities with negative effects on mood, sleep, employment and quality of life.
It is critical that your surgeon has excluded causes of persistent pain such as infection, a fracture (broken bone) or hardware failure (such as a loosened or damaged prosthesis – the artificial titanium and plastic components of your knee joint). This is usually done with blood tests and radiological investigations (eg. x-rays). It is important to hear that your surgeon believes that there is ‘nothing wrong’ with the surgical area and prosthesis, or words to that effect.
This level explores why pain occurs and how to treat it:
Is it only me? explores the incidence of persistent pain
Risk factors discusses contributors to why some people develop persistent pain
Why does pain persist? provides a rational explanation
Maria still has knee pain quiz helps you to reframe your pain and use your knowledge to beat it
