Cruciate ligaments :

16 weeks postop..knee clicking - - Posted by JasonP (JasonP), 25 February 2004

Wakeboarding injury from July 2002.
On Oct. 30th 2003 had ACL reconstruction with cadaver Achilies tendon graph for left knee. No other meniscal or ligament work done (got lucky I guess).
10 weeks of pt, then started my own routine at the gym.
Been doing light (15lbs ineach hand) lunges,
Nautilis: (left leg by itself) 10 lb seated leg extensions, 30 lb leg hamstring curls, seated horizontal 70 lb squat machine, 30 lb calf raises.
Again, each of the exercises listed above are for the left leg. I still work the right leg out as well.
Then jog 6.0 mph for 1.5 miles on the treadmill.

During the last 2 weeks I've been noticing that when I do the light squats, I get a clicking crunching feeling in my knee around my patella. When my leg is fully squatted then push it out to extend it, my patella "pops" or clicks a little, and I also feel like a small crunching type felling. When I put my hand on my knee when I do these, I can totally feel it.
Happens about 70% of the time I extend my leg in squats. This does not hurt at all, just feels really awkward.
Also, walking down stairs is still tricky. I can't fully bend my knee all the way to support my left leg. It's like an abreviated step motion.
Called my OS assistant, they told me to lay off the weights, I might have been pusing it too hard. And to come in Monday.
My PT place had me on an aggresive path, but the OS has a more cautious approach.
One thing that my PT place said was to stay away from seated leg extensions, even during the pt stage, but my OS couldn't understand why.
Anyone have insight to this clicking and crunching type feeling?
Looking at some prior posts, this clicking does sound common for ACL surgeries, but I just want to make sure that this is the same clicking feeling that everyone else was referring to...maybe scar tissue? What about the crunching type feeling?
Anyways, I'll report back on Monday (3/1/04) as to what the OS said.

thx!
Jason
Posted by ruthy007 (ruthy007), 10 March 2004

Hi Jason
Yep, I have exactly the same thing. I had Roux-Goldthwaite + LR (patella realignment) surgery 8 months ago and my knee has just started clicking the same as yours. All this started when my PT told me to do leg extensions with no weights. My OS has told me before to NEVER do this exercise as it's 'hell for knees' but I figured that my PT knew what he was doing. So, I've been off gym work for 3 weeks and taking anti-inflammatories once a day to try and settle it down. Not really working so far but have booked in to see my OS again to ask him what the heck is going on! The click with no pain has graduated into click with some pain so I figure this ain't good.  Knee is also getting sore after sitting in the same position for a while.
Stretching helps a bit to keep the ITB loose but it's not enough now. Feels like something bone-related. It's pretty bad when I run.
Will let you know what the OS says. Might help you out.
Good luck and look after it!  

All the best
Ruth

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