Day 1: You may be given a brace to help with your pain. There is a 50/50 chance that your leg pain and/or pins and needles will be gone immediately. (This depends on the state of the your disc/nerve to begin with, and the surgical technique.)
Week 1-2: You will be referred for PT to address the limitations in your upper body and lower body flexibility, core strength, nerve tension. This will usually be for 4-6 weeks.
Week 6-8: Expect a full return to your prior activities. You will be asked to grade your return, but you will also have learned the proper way to move, bend and twist to avoid re-injury.
Post Surgical Rehab
McKenzie Sports Physical Therapy is your premier physical therapy clinic to manage all of your orthopedic post-operative surgical repairs and reconstructions. We successfully restore the lives of people who’ve had knee replacements, hip replacements, spinal surgeries, complex knee ligament injuries, rotator cuff repairs, and everything in-between. We have close relationships with the best surgeons in Philadelphia. We’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly and can steer you to a professional who gets the job done with the least amount of pain and scarring.
Below are some typical timelines of what you should expect post-surgery. These will vary depending on you, and your specific procedure. Have a question about your specific procedure and timeline? Call us at 267-332-8102 and we can help answer your questions.
ACL RECONSTRUCTION (AND OTHER KNEE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTIONS)
Day 1: You will be placed in a long leg splint or brace to keep the leg straight, and sent home.
Week 2: You will be referred to Physical Therapy.
Week 4-6: By this time, you will have lost the long leg brace, and will no longer need crutches to get around. This may have happened much sooner, too.
Week 12: Generally this is around the time where you can begin straight plane agilities, basic plyometrics, and light running if you meet certain criteria.
Week 16: If you meet the criteria, you will begin multilane agility training and more complex plyometric training.
6 mo: If everything is going to plan and there are minimal hiccups, this is the earliest you will be cleared for a return-to-sport progression (I DID NOT SAY return to sport…I said, and I want to emphasize “progression.” Ideally, this occurs before your preseason, so you have time to work up to your preseason training loads.
9-12 mo. You may expect to be in game-ready condition between these months.
MENISCAL TEAR (PARTIAL MENISCECTOMY):
Day 1: You will be sent home with instructions to keep your knee straight, squeeze your quad, and perform ankle pumps.
Week 1: You will be referred to Physical Therapy.
Week 4: You will be feeling like you are ready to run.
Week 6: You will begin a return to running program and pace/improvement is self dependent.
MENISCAL REPAIR:
Week 1: You will be referred to physical therapy with leg in a long leg brace to keep your knee straight. You may have this brace on for 6-8 more weeks, and is highly dependent on what your surgeon wants.
Week 8: Using a worst-case scenario, you will be out of the long leg brace, and can begin walking normally (You will be able to unlock the knee brace in unweighted conditions). **This pushes the timeline back significantly, so the following timeline is all dependent on how fast we can get you out of that brace.
Week 12: You should have full Active and Passive Knee range of motion. If your quad strength and neuromuscular control meet the standards you will be cleared for basic plyometric and to begin a return to running program.
Week 16: You should be cleared for return to sport progression.
SPINAL FUSION (NECK OR BACK):
Day 1: You will already be placed in a brace to help limit movement and let the repair heal.
Week 4-6: You will be referred to physical therapy, (this may happen sooner or later too) to address your limitations in motion/flexibility, strength, dexterity (if neck), and balance.
Week 8-12: You will be discharged from physical therapy (pending physician approval and your approval), back to your life.
SPINAL MICRODISECTOMY:
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