Fractured patella, recovery, rehab and splint questions.

A snowHead

Hi guys, I recently (11 days ago, 18th Jan) broke my patella in two places while skiing.

The tendons were not damaged and the bone is being held together by them so there was no need for surgery to put hardware in. The consultant put me in a splint, told me not to articulate my knee and I have weekly X-rays followed by an appointment with the consultant to monitor the knitting and ensure the bone fragments stay in place. When I explained this injury would impact my competition season the consultant was very helpful and told me with weekly checkups he would get me into rehab ASAP.

This is where the questions start: what kind of timescale and I looking at before I am allowed to start flexing my knee again, I'm really aiming to minimise muscular atrophy as much as possible.

What kind of recovery times have people had with reasonably straightforward, no surgery required, patella fractures?

The splint I am in is rather uncomfortable (a generic Chinese one supplied by the NHS), I have to do it up tight to stop it moving and they causes discomfort and thus I've spent a lot of time lying in bed with the brace off. If I loosen it to sleep, it moves both up and down and around the leg often then resting on my knee cap. Are there any recemondations for better splints to immobilise the knee joint?

Thanks guys, any advice is greatly appreciated!

Will

A snowHead

willantirocks,

Difficult not seeing the fracture but
if you needed to be held rigidly you would
have had surgery so prob ok the brace
Is s little loose. Do check at your
appointment thought.

All braces slip down.

Sounds as though you may be able to
move soon ie before you get too stiff.

Ask for guidance on exercises you can do
With the leg in the brave

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Does your brace have a rubberised inside on the thigh part,
The brace i used recently did but it's absolutely crap with hairy legs, I ended up shaving mine around the brace area and it worked much better.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Five and a half weeks from when I did it I got the okay to start flexing it and see a physio, the week after got to start exercising it.

Started stretching, got 19% or my ROM back and my hamstrings loosened up nicely.

I've been working in the gym for the last three days doing leg presses, working on hip flexors, adductors and abductors and cardio and it's gradually getting better.

I head out to France again on the 22nd of March and my physio says I'll be ready but for only having about 75% muscle strength in my right quad.

Boom, so stoked!

Help!!

Fractured patella, recovery, rehab and splint questions.

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