Are you scheduled for an upcoming surgical procedure on your knee? Then you should know that physical therapy after knee surgery is crucial for successful rehabilitation. Whether you’re headed in for a knee replacement, ligament repair, or meniscus surgery, physical therapy plays an essential role in helping you regain strength, mobility, and function.
People undergo knee surgeries for several reasons, including sports injuries and osteoarthritis. When a condition is severe enough, limited mobility and intense pain can have a dramatic impact on your quality of life. Surgery can provide lasting relief, but it’s important to remember that your knee needs careful attention afterward to heal properly and regain its full function.
This is where physical therapy at Total Motion Physical Therapy comes in. We’ll work with you to create a personalized rehabilitation plan that includes exercises to strengthen the muscles around your knee, improve your range of motion, and restore your balance, gait, and overall knee function. All this helps you achieve better long-term results from your surgery.
If you or a loved one will be having knee surgery soon, keep reading! We want to share some of the key benefits of physical therapy after knee surgery and give you some insight into what you can expect when you work with our physical therapists.
Three Reasons You Shouldn’t Skip Physical Therapy After Your Knee Surgery
Reason #1: Additional Pain Management Options
Recovering from surgery can be painful. While pain medications are likely a necessity in the first few weeks, it’s important to decrease their usage as time goes on. Physical therapy offers several techniques to reduce pain and inflammation, such as manual therapy, targeted exercises, and pain-relieving modalities.
Reason #2: Enhanced Mobility
Stiffness and limited movement are common issues after knee surgery. Physical therapy focuses on exercises and manual therapy techniques that improve your range of motion, helping you regain mobility in your knee. Over time, you can gradually increase your knee’s ability to move freely, the first step in restoring your knee’s full functionality and returning to the activities you love.
Reason #3: Improved Post-Surgical Outcomes
Skipping out on post-surgical physical therapy can lead to negative outcomes in the long run, including chronic pain and mobility restrictions. Early movement (through physical therapy) helps prevent the formation of scar tissue, which is the culprit for chronic issues after surgery. The later stages of rehabilitation, which focus on strengthening the muscles around the knee joint, help reduce pain and prevent future injuries.
What To Expect During Your Rehabilitation Sessions
When you begin physical therapy after knee surgery, you can expect a personalized and structured approach to your recovery from the team at Total Motion Physical Therapy. We’ll work closely with you and your surgical team to create a personalized rehabilitation program that suits your needs.
During your post-surgical physical therapy sessions, you will engage in a progressive exercise program to improve mobility, strength, balance, and functionality (roughly in that order). We start slowly, with simple passive stretches, then gradually build up to intense strength and function training exercises as you improve. The entire process will take several months, but the long-term benefits are worth it.
Throughout your sessions, we offer several interventions that help reduce pain and inflammation, improve range of motion, and facilitate your body’s natural healing processes. Most of your sessions will include manual therapy techniques, such as soft tissue manipulation and joint mobilization. We might also incorporate techniques like electrical stimulation or ultrasound therapy to further manage pain and promote healing.
Don’t Skip on Physical Therapy after Knee Surgery!
If you have knee surgery coming up, now’s the time to make an appointment with Total Motion Physical Therapy to learn more about what we can do to help you fully rehabilitate and get the most out of your surgical procedure. Call us today to get started.
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