Physiotherapy - pointless?

[kev.]

 I recently met with my surgeon regarding pain from my full thickness chondral loss on the medial side of my patella due to maltracking (no disclocations). He gave me orthoivisc shots (no effect) and told me to go back to physio.

I'm at a bit of a loss here. If there's damage causing the pain, I don't see how physio can help. Shouldn't I be looking into a surgical procedure first, and then physio to strengthen?

I'd welcome opinions.

[Kaputt_Knee]

Good focused physiotherapy can help sort out any muscle imbalance that can be both the source of the mal tracking as well as a side-effect. If you do the prescribed exercises they can slowly but surely help to reduce incidents of pain caused by the mal tracking knee cap.

I am having physio for the same problem and my therapists have found that my ilio-tibial band is extremely tight and they are helping me to loosen it to reduce the amount of pull on my kneecap as it moves. They massage it and I use a firm foam roller as well to help relax the muscles as well.

[krunzer]

PT will also help you strengthen your leg in case you have to go in for surgery.  Once you go for surgery you will lose some muscle mass from non use and make it harder to recover.  Kaputt_Knee is correct that with focused physio it can help your maltracking issues.  If you have not had any subluxations you may not need ligament repair to correct the problem.  I have been dealing with subluxations for 15 years, if I did not go in for physio after my surgery my body, which has been compensating for my bad knee for those 15 years, would still continue to do that and I would never have full reliability in what my knee can do.  It may take awhile but keep with it and make sure to do your exercises at home!

[kev.]

 Thanks for the responses.

 I guess my concern is that I need someone to tell me that despite the damage, if I can get my maltracking corrected, the joint can still function normally.

Has anyone reading this heard of someone who had full thickness damage, that was able to regain full function by simply doing physio?