Dr. Levine did a partial knee replacement on the medial portion of my left knee in August 2022. This totally eliminated the pain I had been experiencing which was preventing me from being able to walk any appreciable distance.
However, almost immediately after the surgery, I developed pain in the center of my knee. When I consulted with Dr. Levine in several subsequent visits, he continued to tell me that "the pain is likely due to tendonitis". I went through 2 different 6-week rounds of physical therapy without any improvement. Dr. Levine's notes from my one-year follow-up appointment stated that "the pain is likely due to tendonitis. The plan is to FU in 1 years for their 2-year follow-up. The plan will be to obtain repeat radiographic and clinical follow-up at that time."
Given the continued pain I was experiencing, I asked to be referred to Rush University Pain Center for further treatment. I subsequently underwent two genicular nerve blocks, a trial of a spinal cord stimulator (SCS), and the implant of a permanent SCS. Ultimately, none of these procedures provided me with any relief and I have had the SCS removed.
I tried to make an appointment to see Dr. Levine for my two-year follow-up, but he was in the process of leaving the practice and had no availability in his schedule, despite my pleading that I needed to see him to get a further diagnosis of the source of my pain. I obtained two opinions from other orthopedic surgeons, who both concluded that I was suffering from arthritic, not neural pain. Both surgeons said that I should have had a total knee replacement rather than the unicompartmental (medial knee arthroplasty) that Dr. Levine had performed.
I am critical of Dr. Levine's care because he did not correctly diagnose the nature of my post operative pain. If I had known that the pain was due to arthritis, I never would have undergone what ended up being 5 separate surgical procedures (2 nerve blocks, insertion of the trial SCS, implant of the permanent SCS and removal of the SCS) which were all done to address neural pain. read more