Lateral Release

[purplestars1881]

Hello...

Just looking for some advice on LR. I am having arthorscopic surgery for a torn meniscus. My OS said that depending on how my knees look when he gets in there, he may do a LR. I know from both X-rays and MRI that my kneecap is very tilted. However, I can't help be nervous after hearing all of the horror stories...I was hoping that those of you who have had this done could share your experience with me in terms of recovery and ability. Also, does anyone know roughly what kind of a timeline I am looking at with these two procedures?

Thanks,
Heather

[shadehawk]

Heather,

I really think that all Heather's have bad knees.....

I just had an LR plus a couple of other things and the LR will fix the tilt of your patella.  My patella looked like it hung over the cliff and now it is sitting straight...

LR's work great if done for the correct reasons - they are meant to fix a tilted patella....

Good luck,

Shade

[purplestars1881]

Thanks Shade. I appreciate you sharing your info with me. And yes, I agree....all Heather's do seem to have bad knees....maybe there should be a disclaimer next to that name in babynaming books. :-)

[Heather M.]

Another Heather with bad knees, here.  Who also had an LR and partial menisectomy.  My kneecap is now straight in the trochlear groove, and no longer dislocates if I step wrong.  However, my problems were made significantly worse by this procedure.

As for the recovery--the actual surgical recovery, I can tell you it's not that bad.  The return to activity, I can't talk about, because I haven't been able to do it.  Anyway, I was only on crutches for about 6 days, started hobbling around the house after three.  I started PT at day 7 post-op, and by then was hobbling without crutches.  I started with pretty simple stuff--straight leg raises, range of motion stuff, massaging the quad, IT band stretches, and similar non-weight-bearing activities.  None of the PT was particularly painful, but I did have a lot of pain and swelling afterwards.  It turns out that's because I had a serious post-op joint bleed, and all the blood and fluid was left inside my knee (instead of being drained or surgically washed out).  Blood is a major irritant in the joint, and doing all these exercises and early strength work after having the bleed in my joint was an uwise rehab strategy.  If I could do it again, I'd definitely make sure I only did early range of motion work (especially extension, but flexion, too) until the swelling and bruising went away.  I'd put off the walking around my neighborhood and treadmill and stairmaster stuff until the swelling had subsided.  I'd keep up the ice at least 8 times a day until the swelling was gone, too.  I think I stopped too early.  Anyway, I did pretty well for about two months in rehab, then I started to plateau.  Then I stopped being able to do stuff in PT that I had previously done with ease.  One by one the list of activities I could tolerate went down to nothing.  But I had a serious complication of the lateral release that most people manage to avoid--scar tissue and patella baja.  Avoid those two things, and you should be ahead of the game.

Heather