Is this normal before knee surgery?!

Question: Is this normal before knee surgery?

I tore my ACL and medial meniscus in my right knee. I am in a brace from mid-thigh to foot and am walking on crutches. I have seen an orthopedic surgeon and this injury has been confirmed based on imaging tests. My knee is very stiff and I can not move it well. My surgeon said that the injury will definitely require surgery. He wants me to attended 8 physical therapy sessions before surgery. He said that this will help restore some of my range of motion and that it would make my recovery from the surgery go much more smoothly. (I am a 26 year old healthy female). I have never heard of having physical therapy BEFORE knee surgery and am wondering if this is a standard practice among orthopedic surgeons? Thanks!

Answers:

This is a really common question, its one I asked myself both times before I had ACL surgery. Both times I came to the same answer. Yes, physical therapy before ACL surgery is important.

Its important because if the muscles around your knee are strong before surgery than they will have a much better chance of not losing as much mass after the surgery. If you legs can retain some muscle mass it will make the recovery much faster.

The most important exercises to do before surgery are often hamstring and balance exercises.

Here are some of the exercises I did at physical therapy before my ACL surgery...
http://www.aclsurgeryrecovery.net/18/why…

This will strengthen your ligaments and the surrounding muscles. So, if you do some of it before the surgery, it will obviously go much "smoother" later. You shall probably have arthroscopic surgery ,an less invasive operation which will not destroy anything in your knee. The orthopedic surgeon is going to clean it up a bit down there.

I'm having a surgery in 2 weeks time and doing some therapy at home

YES you NEED to do the PT before surgery if not the recovery time is MUCH longer and your knee is MUCH stiffer and trust me i lost the ROM in my knee 4 years ago (thanks to scar tissue and there is nothing that they can do about it) there is NOTHING fun about having a knee that wont bend right.

for an acl tear the best thing you can do is therapy before surgery. your surgeon is doing the best thing for you. it helps you get some strength and range of motion back. this will cut down your recovery time a lot and help with pain.

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Is this normal before knee surgery?!

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