Elam Sports O`ahu - Physical Therapists and Sports Rehabilitation in Hawaii

This article is a fairly easy to read (versus the more technical medical journal renditions of the same thing) regarding new procedures for total knee replacement surgery. As a Physical Therapist, I prefer to treat patientns with htis procedure versus the older, traditional method. Why? Because the recovery is accelerated and the rehabilitation process is less complicated. The reason for this is because with the minimally invasive procedure, there is less of an incision made into the quadricep muscle which is the main extender of the knee (making the leg straighten out). The traditional procedure extends the incisions into the muscle and so the rehab fllowing surgery is prolonged just for the mere fact that there is an extended healing process — the cut muscle needs to heal as well as the tissues surrounding the knee. Incisions into the muscle also mean that the force of contractions will be diminished and delayed which will prolong the healing process. Check it out here:

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/minimally_invasive_knee_replacement/article_em.htm

Here’s a nice, short video on total knee rehabilitation after 8 weeks, post-op. Generally speaking, the rehab process entails many basic exercises and drills that the patient would be required to do at home. In this video, you get an opportunity to see the process from the PT’s perspective — what will be done and how, in the clinic. As for the length of rehab, it varies. For most insurances, there can be up to 24 visits allowed for Physical Therapy. Unfortunately, many insurances are limiting the visits a patient can have to receive treatments or are limiting the amount of money the insurer will pay for rehab, which in-turn cuts the length of time a patient may receive therapy. In this video, after 8 weeks, this patient has about 1 month or 4 weeks to go for full recovery…so you can figure it takes about 3 months or 12 weeks to obtain full recovery. Just remember as we tell our surgical patients at Elam Sports O`ahu, we need to follow the 3-6-12 rule where the first 3 months are crucial and therapy is of utmost importance. At the 6 month mark, you will feel “whole” and may even forget you had surgery just 6 months earlier! But even though feeling better, cellular healing of human tissue can take up to 12 months or longer so pay attention to your activities and ensure that you are completely healed.