Tollestrup Offers Options For Chronic Pain Post Surgery
Dr. Tim Tollestrup often treats patients suffering from persistent chronic pain post surgery. After the initial injury heals, the pain remains for months or even years. Samantha is a patient who fits this description. She agreed to let us share her story in hopes of reaching others.
Here is an edited version of Dr. Tollestrup’s chart notes on Samantha.
“Samantha is a 21-year-old woman who presented for evaluation of chronic right lateral knee pain. As a teenager, she was an avid soccer player and injured the right lateral meniscus at age 15. She underwent arthroscopic repair at that time and physical therapy, making a fairly good recovery.
Samantha looked to Dr. Tim Tollestrup to help with chronic pain post surgery that persisted for years after surgery on her knee.*
She unfortunately re-injured the right lateral meniscus and underwent a second right knee arthroscopy at the age of 16. After the second knee surgery, Samantha started to experience constant pain. As time went on, she started to develop a second kind of pain which was more posterior to the knee with radiation of the pain down the side of her lower leg. At times the pain would radiate all the way down over the top of her right foot and this would also make the top of her foot feel numb. Any time Samantha would squat down, the pain would also radiate into her thigh.
At the age of 18, she saw another orthopedic surgeon who told her that the source of the pain in the right knee was a problem with the way her kneecap was tracking over the knee. She underwent a third arthroscopic knee surgery to try and get rid of the pain which did not help.
When I examined her, i could see that she had an injury to the lateral nerve which innervates the lateral knee joint. This was confirmed with a diagnostic block where I put the nerve to sleep using a long-acting local anesthetic. This was the source of the sharp stabbing pain right in the side of the knee joint. She had also developed a compression of the right common peroneal nerve at the level of the fibular neck, on the outside of the knee, just below the knee joint. This was the source of the pain which would radiated down the leg and onto the top of the foot, making it painful and numb.
I operated on her on 12/16/16. I saw her in clinic for her 4.5-week post-op visit. Both the original stabbing pain in the right side of her knee joint and the pain and numbness in the lower leg and foot are completely gone. She is back to work and able to walk and stand without experiencing the pain she used to experience on an almost constant basis.”
If you have persistent chronic pain following an injury, Dr. Tollestrup can help. Call our office for a consultation 702-666-0463.
*Disclaimer
We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.