Following this kind of knee injury, pain, swelling and limitations to movement in the knee are immediately apparent.
Conservative treatment usually begins with immobilisation, before work in our aquatherapy pool and sports rehab gym can get started, aiming to reduce knee pain through muscular strengthening.
Surgery may be required where the patella is fragmented, or has become dislocated. Following this, our post-operative care can help you fully recover within around three months.
Patella surgery
This is reserved for compounded fractures, or cases where dislocation of fragments has occurred. This procedure uses osteosynthetic material mounted on metal frames, although in some cases it may be necessary to perform a total patellectomy.
Regardless, post-operative recovery plans start with continuous passive movement (CPM) starting with physiotherapy in the second week after surgery, then introducing load two weeks later. It usually takes around 3 months for full recovery following this kind of surgery.
Patellar fracture rehabilitation
The fracture of the patella is almost always followed by a large effusion and pain; so the first stage of the treatment is focused on controlling the swelling through physical therapy and massage therapy; the recovery of the full range of motion will start early on, paying attention to joint limits imposed by any synthetic means, so the rom must be very small. In this period it is very useful the pool therapy to reduce the load applied on the limb and not overstress the injured part. After the first month, if the fracture already shows signs of a good consolidation can begin the muscle trophism recovery work on the quadriceps, hip flexors, hip muscles, pelvis and the core first in isometric mode, then in closed isotonic kinetic chain and then open avoiding the range that could trigger pain.
At consolidated fracture there are no great limits in the patellar functionality so after about 2 months you can start isokinetic strengthening preparation for the test, perform proprioceptive exercises and balance.
If all the traffic lights are green, the athlete can start on field sessions and recover of sport specific gesture, bearing in mind that education for the return to play will be long and difficult, because the stance phase (eccentric) is a moment of great concern for the patient, because the patella is subjected to a considerable stress. If all goes regularly return to competition can take place after around 4 months.
