Shattered patella ORIF 27th October 2018

[Rameez]

Hey Guys,

I slipped in a freak accident where the edge of an empty pool that I was standing next to collapsed underneath me and I shattered my left patella.

I am 6 weeks post op,22 year old male, my recovery process thus far has been mostly me being confined to my bed and terrified to move until about 4.5 weeks post op. My patella fracture was a communicated ,transverse fracture , treated with tension bands and a figure 8 wire.

I was in a straight leg back slab , non-weight bearing for 3 weeks, after which my surgeon took it off, removed the staples and sent me home without any support like a brace and much to my horror. Suffice to say I did not move for another week at all and when I threw a tantrum(granted I am 22 years old and the baby in my family) to him about having a brace he said that bending was good and would squeeze the bone together.

I have not been for any PT yet due to a lack of therapists over the festive season but will have my first session on Thursday. I have hardly any pain and my leg started bending naturally after the back slab came off. I only have stiffness in the knee and the obvious lack of motion.

I am just confused as to when I can start wieght bearing and if there are any excerices I can do for ROM. My surgeon told me to bend the knee three times a day but honestly I bend it more by myself and it has gotten quite high (unassisted) is this detrimental? When can I try to start walking?

I also do about 30 straight leg lifts a day.
My surgeon is not very good at communicating with me processes after and have a check up on the 15th.

This has been my experience this far.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[axand]

Hello Rameez,

I had also my patella shattered in 5 pcs, I had surgery a week after (due to all surgeons where in vacation, since I had my injury at the end of July 2018), I have 3 screws + 2 wires. My surgeon told me I can start to do weight bearing having the brace on the day after the surgery and using crutches to load the leg while is conformable for me.

I have my progress documented here: https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/index.php?topic=75266.0

I would say that for any persons going thru patella fracture and surgery, at first they should start to regain the ROM and keep the quadriceps muscles trained.

I was walking thru the house with crutches from the 7th day after surgery, but this was because I needed to get some ROM (I think like 30 degrees) and because I waited 1 week for the surgery I had my quadriceps atrophied so I had to restart them...

There are isometric exercises to keep the muscles trained, I think it would be helpful to find a PT to show you some, or go on youtube and search. And for ROM the best one used for me was to have my leg straight on a hard surface having a sock on my feet and using a towel to pull the ankle towards me, having the brace locked at the ROM recommended by the OS (I started with 30 degrees).

Keep us posted of your progress.