Physical Therapy Question?!


Question: I have runner's knee. its kinda severe (therapist says) so how long will i have to go to physical therapy til it heels? about how many weeks/months?


Answers: I have runner's knee. its kinda severe (therapist says) so how long will i have to go to physical therapy til it heels? about how many weeks/months?

Hi,

Runners knee is the name given to patellofemoral pain or anterior knee pain. Usually this type of pain is caused by biomechanical imbalances around the knee. Both the inner and outer muscle that surround the knee cap attach in part to fibres around the knee cap and exert opposing forces on it.The outer side of theknee cap also gets pulled by the iliotibial band (ITB) which runs down the outside of the thigh. If the focres that pull the knee cap inwards and outwards are not similar the result is that the patella or knee cap will rub against the groove on the bottom of the thigh bone (femur) and cause pain. i.e runners knee.

the goal of physical therapy is to address the force imbalance by selectively strengthening one of the muscle groups, usually the inner one ( vastus medialis) and by strecthing out the ITB so that it does not pull too much on the patella. The treatment will be very active, and will require you to perform exercises everyday, your therapist may also give you stretches, and may perform some manual , hands-on ITB stetches themselves depending on their philospohy in regard to this condition

If you ease off from running and follow the exercise program you get from your PT you should start to see results in a few weeks. but it may take several months of exercise before you completely resolve your biomecanical imbalance as muscle tissue takes along time to hypertrphy ( grow bigger)


Good luck

david (registered PT)

Physical therapy time takes as long as your body needs, there's no set time. I went to physical therapy for my foot for 2 months and it still isn't better. So only time will tell when you will feel better. If it is severe my estimate is about 3 months.





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