What Will Happen After An Anterior Cruciate Ligament Surgery?

An injury in the ACL or the anterior cruciate ligament is normally addressed with a surgery. After the surgical operation, the patient is still likely to feel some pain and discomfort in the injured knee. If this happens, the patient is recommended to use prescription drugs for a few days. Some anti inflammatory medication can be prescribed if pain killers are not enough to alleviate the pain. These anti-inflammatory drugs should not be obtained if the knee is comfortable already.

On the subject of the rehabilitation process following your surgical treatment, the individual should visit a physiotherapist immediately after the surgery. The therapist will talk to the patient about the static quadriceps exercises, which are meant to enable the leg to extend fully and also to start knee flexion. Through the first 24 hours after the reconstruction surgery of the torn anterior cruciate ligament, the patient might be able to walk, but with assistance from crutches. In many cases, patients will get rid of the crutches and commence walking on their own two to four days after the surgery. But it is critical that the knee is still safeguarded with a knee brace for as long as 6 weeks. The purpose of the knee brace is to help the knee achieve full extension especially as the individual sleeps.

After the patient is discharged from the hospital following the surgery, it is necessary that he/she schedule for therapy. The particular therapist will design a program that will be appropriate for the patient. The ideal frequency of the rehabilitation sessions is three times per week of the first six weeks, and just once a week for the following six weeks. The first part of the rehabilitation program will be targeted at controlling the swelling of the knee. This particular stage should also try to eliminate the pain felt on the knee. The next thing will be intended to make the knee get back its range of flexibility.

There will be particular workout routines to achieve these goals. An important part of the rehabilitation process happens when the therapist requires the patient to do exercises that are geared towards leg balance, reflexes, muscle reaction along with proprioception. It becomes an essential part of the whole process because it will be after this that the leg brace can be taken off already.

Some of the exercise routines involved in the second phase of the rehabilitation are static cycling, driving, in addition to pool or water exercises. The patient will be made to swim slowly four weeks after the surgery. As months pass by, more kinds of workout routines will be required by the therapist, until the knee seems comfortable in its motion to make sure that the anterior cruciate ligament will not be injured again.