Knee Injury

[illusoryduck]

Hi All

I'm going in for knee surgery soon as i have several ligament tears. ACL and MCL. I have been told to strenghen it as much as possible before the op. Does anyone have any advice on what i should be doing? Also has anyone else ever had knee surgery? Worried about the time its going to take to recover to get back to training/fighting.

Thanks

[bigry]

Quote

Hi All

I'm going in for knee surgery soon as i have several ligament tears. ACL and MCL. I have been told to strenghen it as much as possible before the op. Does anyone have any advice on what i should be doing? Also has anyone else ever had knee surgery? Worried about the time its going to take to recover to get back to training/fighting.

Thanks

I snapped my acl and pcl in october 2010 and im still recovering the repair has healed great strong as ever but the muscles have depleated massivly making it a slow process im able yo run on it but not for long periods of time as the muscles connected cramp very easy to begin with. if u are offered a Acl physio therapy class would highly recommend you attend as its good motivation while on rehab.

[trekt]

Hey mate, I had surgery 5 days ago for an ACL tear.
While they were operating they found a 20% cartilage tear as well which kind of sucks
Prior to the operation I did a few weeks of hamstring curls, calf raises, and box squats (without much weight) but the problem with doing too much work especially in your case is that you're lacking a lot of stability, so you really don't want to introduce a meniscus cartilage tear into the mix which would complete the "unhappy triad of O'Donaghue" symptom..

However if you want to know how rehab is going to go, I've got my whole rehab plan out here, in a really specialised rehab centre.

I fell doing gymnastics and have been told that it'll be 8 months back to normal, however this is because its high impact on the knees. This is what I'e been given

Post operation Days 0-3 (the whole thing is in French so I'm doing my best to translate what I've been given)

Pain calming, limiting of swelling

treatments: analgesics, anti inflammatoires, anti coagulants

Okay theres a lot of information but I'm assuming you'll just want to know how the exercises progress..


Day 4-21

Electrotherapy (stimulation of muscles via electric shocks - just to wake the muscles up)
Massaging of the quads
progress towards lifting the leg in full extension without weights
dynamic work of the quadriceps against resistance is forbidden
no flexion to extension with weights

ischio-jambiers (hamstrings?)

Dynamic work with help from physiotherapist
then against manual resistance
then again mechanical resistance

Relearning to walk

Progressively less use of a brace with use of crutches as day 21 approaches
Ascent and Descent of stairs must be taken step by step with crutches

Balance work

No idea what this says sorry, basically regaining of balance

Water work

Minor flexion and extension within the pool + walking

Range of movement work between 0-100 degrees


DAYS 21-100

Range of motion recuperation

Maintenance of complete extension without flexion (basically flexing the quads to hold 0 degree movement)
Flexion from 0-120 degrees (up to day 45)
Flexion from 0-130 degrees (up to day 100)

Strengthening of muscle and balance

Depending on whether you have a graft from your patella or your hamstring this will be different, and its really up to your physio

work is based on progressive introduction of equipment

Allowed physical activities

Day 21 - Driving
Day 45 - normal climbing of stairs
Day 45-100 Descent of stairs to be done step by step

Walking on stable ground
Cycling without any resistance
Swimming - frontcrawl or backcrawl NO BREASTSTROKE OR BUTTERFLY

to not be used - trampoline - Freeman platforms

Day 100-115 - Athlete progression stage (if not athlete ignore)

For professionals in sport or high level sport a phase of athletisation (i guess you understand this word) with intesive rehab for two weeks can be propossed by a rehab centre with muscular work, balance and cardio respiratory work

Day 100- 6 months

Recuperation of the final degrees of range of motion
Again try not to induce hyper extension

Strengthening of muscular capabilities

Strength, endurance and power development of thigh and calf muscles through more and more dynamic exercises within different environments
Stretching to regain flexibility

Intensifying of balance work

Cardio respiratory work

Sporting activities allowed

Normal descent of stairs
Swimming of all types
Skipping on both feet
Walking on stable ground with a slight incline or decline
Jogging on stable and flat ground
Cycling with an incline or decline

From 5 months onwards

Higher degrees of incline when cycling and walking
Introduction of differnt terrains
- Work starting on the sport performed.

After 6 months

Pivot sports can be trained but not competed - (ski, tennis) and then pivot-contact sports (football, handball, rugby, martial arts)
6-8 weeks training must be completed before any competition scenarios are introduced.





AND Thats all I've got, again this is personalised according to your recovery, but the rehab centre i've got it pretty specialised so I'd say thats a good guideline!

I hope that helps at least!

Its a damn long journey, but just keep focussed, you'll get frustrated at times, I know I am and I'm only on day 5 of rehab!
But I met a guy at rehab who has torn his ACL 5 times, broken his tibia on both legs and had his cartilage repaired and he's still trying to be positive so I figured its the best way to do it!

Good luck with the surgery!