Q: My father had a knee surgery a year ago. He is very active. He now has constant swelling and sometimes unbearable pain in his right calf. The doctor says its a baker cyst. But I have looked this up and read that a baker's cyst is directly behind the knee. What could this possibly be? Is it due to fluid build-up in the calf muscle? What can be done about this?

A:I suppose that your dad had a knee replacement. Pain after a knee replacement in the knee region could be due to aseptic loosening of the prosthesis. The calf swelling and pain could be due to a deep vein thrombosis and a venogram or Doppler could pick this up. Please seek more specific advice from your orthopaedic surgeon.