Strengthening Exercises After Knee Reconstruction

How a tiny toggle put the bounce back in my knees

Around 20,000 Britons a year need knee surgery to repair their anterior cruciate ligament, and face a long recovery. Wayne Stansfield, 42, from Warrington in Cheshire who runs an engineering firm, underwent a newer, less invasive procedure, as he tells CAROL DAVIS.

THE PATIENT 

As an adrenaline junkie, I’ve always pushed myself to the limit — I love racing cars, motocross biking and heli-skiing.

But skiing in Switzerland in January last year, the tip of my ski hit a lump of ice — I catapulted through the air, and twisted my left knee as I landed.

When I took my ski off and tried to put weight on that leg, it simply buckled.

I was taken by ambulance to the nearest medical centre where they did X-rays and told me there was no bone damage, which was a relief. They sent me back to the resort with crutches and a flexible knee brace.

But I was worried — six years previously I’d damaged my right knee rupturing three ligaments including the anterior cruciate, which controls the knee’s movement. Thankfully, the right knee is now fine but I had a nasty feeling I’d done the same thing to my left.

My GP referred me to surgeon Mike McNicholas. He did an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan and confirmed I had, indeed, torn the anterior cruciate ligament as well as two other ligaments down the side of the knee.

I burst into tears. After my first injury, I had to spend three months in a brace, followed by an operation and seven months of physiotherapy. I just couldn’t face it all again.

But Mr McNicholas explained he could do a new operation using hamstrings (muscles which help the knee to bend) to repair the anterior cruciate ligament, fixing them in place with a tiny button like a toggle.

The first time I hurt my knee, I wore a rigid brace, but Mr McNicholas said this time I could stay in the flexible brace, so the other ligaments would heal naturally, and scar tissue wouldn’t build up. He predicted I could be back playing sport in six months.

I had the operation just four days later. When I woke, there was no pain because I’d had local anaesthetic injected into the knee. The doctors strapped my left leg into a passive exercise machine, which continually bent and straightened it to stop my knee stiffening.

How long should I wait after ACL reconstruction surgery before I ...

Im 18 years old and just graduated. I tore my ACL in my senior year of rugby and i just got surgery 6 days ago. I was planning in enlisting into the US Navy right after graduation but due to the injury, i am not able to enlist until 6 months from now. I would like to know how long I should wait before I start physically training and what exercises I can do while Im not able to run. That will depend on your particular situation. You need to go to physical therapy for rehab and your pt should be able to tell you then.

You may need to learn to do things like pain relief, scar massage (to tear down the adhesions so everything is mobile), knee cap stretching to keep the knee cap moving loosely, lots of stretches because ACL recon cut thru things, meaning scar tissue is forming now.

Check out the AWESOME Bob’s ACL Board at http://factotem.org/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl for detailed info from a lot of folks who have been thru ACL recon and rehab.

It’s been awhile since my acl recon, but I had to do abductor and adductor exercises, and exercises for quads, I forget the name (put it right out of my mind) of the machine-de-Sade I got strapped into, upside down, to strengthen my bum leg.

If you are relatively fit, rehab can start soon, almost as soon as you are up and about, but go see your physical therapist, to do it right, and avoid more damage to your knee.

And you are not going to want to run for a while– but there are tons of gym exercises you can do instead. Ahh… ellipticals, recumbent bikes, and stairmasters.

Good luck!

That will depend on your particular situation. You need to go to physical therapy for rehab and your pt should be able to tell you then.

You may need to learn to do things like pain relief, scar massage (to tear down the adhesions so everything is mobile), knee cap stretching to keep the knee cap moving loosely, lots of stretches because ACL recon cut thru things, meaning scar tissue is forming now.

Check out the AWESOME Bob’s ACL Board at http://factotem.org/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl for detailed info from a lot of folks who have been thru ACL recon and rehab.

It’s been awhile since my acl recon, but I had to do abductor and adductor exercises, and exercises for quads, I forget the name (put it right out of my mind) of the machine-de-Sade I got strapped into, upside down, to strengthen my bum leg.

If you are relatively fit, rehab can start soon, almost as soon as you are up and about, but go see your physical therapist, to do it right, and avoid more damage to your knee.

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