I (female, age 72) regularly have a severe whiplash in my left leg. It started two years ago when I got a new knee. I had a wound infection during this operation. Could this have something to do with it?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
I can’t find much about it in the literature, but I think so. A whiplash is a tear of a piece of muscle, usually close to the tendon attachment. The cause is fatigue and exhaustion due to local overload. Classic is that you feel something snap. That is followed by a vicious pain. If it happens in your calf, you can often feel a dent in the muscle. Whether you see a subcutaneous hemorrhage depends on the size of the torn part and how deep it is. Whiplash is notorious among runners, soccer players and tennis players, but is more common in the elderly.
Surgery is an attack on the area around your knee, especially if there are complications. If muscles start to work worse, the muscles in the environment have to endure more. If the blood supply is reduced due to damage from the operation, exhaustion will occur even sooner. Remember that the muscles that ‘take over’ the work are actually not in the right place for the work they have to do, which makes it much harder. A joint replacement can also change the position of the joint, forcing muscles to work at a slightly different length than what they were ‘designed’ for. The damage from a whiplash therefore also increases the chance of a subsequent whiplash. A ruptured muscle does not regrow; an adjacent part takes over the work, but becomes stronger through the training.
The best approach is practice without overloading; sites such as Thuisarts.nl but also sites of physiotherapists provide examples of exercises. In your case, I would go to the physical therapist to make a plan together.
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