You’ll slowly wean off of your dependence on crutches as your knee tolerates.
Manual therapy can also help decrease swelling around your knee. Your physical therapist will manually breakdown any scar tissue restrictions that may be developing in your knee. A common complication post-surgery is stiffness and loss of range of motion because of excess scar tissue formation. Making sure you have the proper flexibility includes immediate manual therapy, or hands-on techniques, that your physical therapist will perform on the surface of the knee joint and the muscles surrounding it. bending and straightening the knee), and begin to slowly withstand bearing weight on your injured knee so you can start to walk. Main priorities will be to reduce inflammation, regain range of motion of the knee (i.e. Some of these processes may vary depending on your doctor’s protocols. Many of the same goals you would want to achieve in prehab also apply here in the initial phases of physical therapy treatment.
crutches) and tackling tricky movement barriers, such as stairs, so you know how to move around after surgery. It could also involve teaching you how to use assistive devices (i.e. Prehab treatment might involve building up quadricep and core strength pre-surgery so you’ll see greater knee stability and faster recovery post-surgery. One study in 2013 found that patients participating in prehab returned to sports almost 2 months faster. Undergoing prehab before surgery has been proven to improve knee function faster after surgery. You’ll want to strengthen all the muscles that will aid in keeping you balanced post-surgery. Although the surgery will fix the tear, it will also cause the muscles in the knee area to become weak and stiff. Prehab focuses on increasing strength and flexibility of the muscles in your surgery area. Pre-rehabilitation physical therapy, or “prehab”, is a form of physical therapy that begins before you have scheduled surgery. 0 Weeks, Treatment Before You Even Have Surgery Although the timeline for ACL recovery varies depending on your specific injury, you should expect 4-6 months of one-on-one treatment with your physical therapist.
You may wonder how you’ll ever get back on your feet again. Post-surgery, you will likely feel immobile. Depending on how badly torn the ligament is, you may be a candidate for surgery to repair the damage. An ACL injury commonly happens when you rotate too quickly or with too much force in that joint area, which causes your ACL to overstretch and tear. It only comes into play when you’re cutting around or changing directions to stabilize the knee joint area. When you’re moving forward, such as when you’re running, the ACL isn’t really involved. The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, joins the upper leg bone (femur) with the lower leg bone (tibia) and functions as the primary rotational stabilizer for the knee. A common athletic injury that you’ve probably heard about might have to do with tearing the ACL.