Recovering from a Knee Injury

Baptist Health La Grange: Recovering from a Knee Injury

Orthopedic surgeon Nicholas A. Kenney, MD, describes the treatment and recovery process after a knee injury or surgery, including physical therapy, rehabilitation and rest.

Recovering from a Knee Injury HealthTalks Transcript

Nicholas A. Kenney, MD, Orthopedic Surgery
Kennedy is a 14-year-old soccer player. She injured her knee during a soccer tournament. We initially worked on her motion of her knee and her swelling with medications and with physical therapy to try to get her knee moving well. Once we were able to accomplish that, then we treated her with surgery. For recovery, we typically will have patients take it easy for about two or three days, let some of the inflammation and swelling come down. And then we get them started into a fairly aggressive therapy program to get the motion back to their knee, regain their strength, and help support the graft as it heals.

Kennedy Park, La Grange, Kentucky:
I knew it’d be like a hard recovery. It was a lot of strength exercises in my leg to make sure that it was strong enough to support me.

Dr. Kenney:
During this post-operative period, we’ll have the patient focus primarily on regaining the motion of the knee. We’ll also work aggressively on strengthening, particularly of the thigh muscles. So, a lot of our focus is on hip and core strengthening to help protect that ligament. The other things that we do focus on are landing techniques and prevention mechanisms, as far as specifics in their sport, for trying to help protect their anterior cruciate ligament so it doesn’t re-tear. Kennedy, in particular, is a very dedicated athlete, and fortunately, many athletes understand the value of the hard work they put into their rehabilitation, and certainly she did an excellent job of that and was assisted by great therapists here at Baptist La Grange.