Knee Injury Questions?

[emilycaitlin]

Hello, I'm 29 and on Sept 28 dislocated my knee. It popped back in place but the mri said torn patellofemoral ligament, small joint effusion and contusion of femoral condyle. My kneecap will still completely sublux also. I have been in a brace and been doing pt at home. My last follow up the ortho said my muscles are still extremely atrophied and increased the pt, said he would operate if not better in 4wks. I am still having pain when walking and being woken at night by pain.

I was wondering if any of you have had a similar injury and what the healing time is, I have heard it can be up to 1yr? If you had a similar surgery how did it go? The ortho said mine would be an open procedure and involve grafting. Can you tell me what grafting is? Any advice on how to speed the healing, decrease this pain or avoid surgery would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, em.

[etc91]

Twisted my left knee badly enough two months ago, I used crutches for about a week before I could place enough weight on my left leg.  I didn't go to the Dr. thinking it would get better.  Now it is beginning to hurt more than ever and my knee is warm.  Should I see my Doc or is this pretty normal?  I've had a bad back for years so pain does not bother me as much....

[emilycaitlin]

Hi Star Queen, thank you so much for your detailed and informative reply. It really did help me better understand this. Wow, a cadaver ligament? The surgery sounds pretty involved. Until the dr said open procedure I was thinking along the lines of a scope fixing it. Makes me want to go in here and do some more pt exercises, lol, I really hope this thing will start to heal so I can avoid that surgery. Thanks again for your reply, em.

[star queen]

A ligament is the part of the muscle that joins to bone.  So the patellofemoral ligament joins the muscles of the front of the femur over the patella (kneecap) and holds it in place and "on track" over the joint.  When speaking of a bone or body part, all things are in relation to the heart.  Things that are close to the heart are said to be proximal (close), and those parts farther away from the heart are said to be distal.  When thinking of the sides of a part, the part toward the body is medial, the part to the outside of the body is lateral.  The femur is the thigh bone.  The distal end is the knee, the proximal end is the hip.  The part on the outside of the distial femur (knee) is the lateral condyle and the part of the distal femur (knee) on the inside is the medial condyle. When a ligament is torn slightly, it may heal, but if the ligament is torn badly, then it must be surgically repaired.  During surgery, the torn part of the ligament is removed.  If there is enough ligament left it will be stretched and stapled to the bone.  The patella (knee cap) will be either removed or reattached.  If there isn't enough ligament to stretch, then a ligament from a cadaver will be sewn onto the existing ligament and stapled into place on the bone.  The surgeon will cut the knee open in one of several ways, all of them will cut through muscle and nerves.  You may have a numb spot forever, but that isn't too bad.  After surgery you will have the knee wrapped and strapped into a machine that will begin exercising your leg and will continue to do so for several days.  After a week you will return to the doc for staple removal and begin physical therapy.  If you don't exercise this way the muscle will atrophy badly and can take a year or longer to recoup from.  I suggest you get an old exercise bike and take all weight off and just sit on it and pedal.  Recoperation from this surgery is an individual thing based on your physical condition at the time of surgery, the extent of trauma from surgery, basic diet, and consistancy in doing your PT.  You could be on your feet and as soon as a month and as long as it takes.  Pain is pretty bad for the first 24 hours, which they will have you on a morphine drip or something like that.  After 24 hours the pain is markedly reduced and after a couple of days, OTC drugs should manage the pain and you can go home.  Hope this helps