Playing basketball, football or any sport in which a player comes at you from the side while your foot is planted on the ground increases the likelihood you will tear your medial collateral ligament. Depending on the force applied to the outside of your knee, the tear may also dislodge or injure your medial meniscus, because that ligament attaches deep within your joint cavity. Check with your doctor about rehabilitation, since not all exercises may be appropriate for you.
Significance
An injured knee must be treated then rehabilitated immediately so you can regain as much normal function and strength of your knee as possible. The role of rehabilitation is to reduce pain and swelling so you can begin to move your knee joint. Rehabilitation exercises help realign the healing ligament and tissues with the existing uninjured knee structures.
Without rehab, new tissue remains as scar tissue, impeding the normal range of motion and strength of your knee joint. Obviously, this will impact your ability to perform your everyday activities, including any exercises or sports you used to do.
Features
Once pain, swelling and inflammation have been reduced from the initial injury, a knee rehabilitation session usually begins with heat, such as the application of a hot pack, followed by ultrasound. Heat increases circulation to your knee to encourage healing and enhance the exchange of nutrients and waste products. It also relaxes the surrounding musculature so exercises can be done with less pain. Your doctor may suggest non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, to reduce pain and inflammation, promoting healing.
The first exercises you will likely do when recovering from a medial collateral ligament tear are stretches to regain your range of motion with as little pain as possible. Then you will likely progress to strengthening exercises. An ice pack may be applied over the inside of your knee after you have completed all your exercises, especially if there is noticeable swelling.
Time Frame
It can take between 40 and 50 weeks for your ligament to regain near-normal strength, even after a well-planned rehabilitation program. Depending on the extent of the injury and your physician, rehab stretching exercises may begin at the onset of the second or third week from the date of injury. Strengthening exercises may be started between the third and sixth week from injury. Heat, ultrasound and ice is incorporated through the duration of your rehabilitation exercises.
Exercises
Joint mobilization exercises -- the first you will likely do -- require your therapist to hold, push, pull and glide the bones of your knee joint over each other, enhancing the range of motion of your medial collateral ligament and any affected structures.
Subsequent exercises involve maintaining a stretched position using gravity or a light ankle weight to stretch your knee. Flexibility exercises progress so that you are the one pulling or pushing on your leg to stretch your knee. Strengthening exercises begin with full and partial range of motion exercises to bend and extend your knee using ankle weights or exercise bands, gradually adding weight-bearing exercises like half-squats, leg extensions and leg curls.
References
- "Examination of Musculoskeletal Injuries"; Sandra Shultz, Ph.D., Peggy Houglum, Ph.D., and David Perrin, Ph.D.; 2005
- "Therapeutic Exercise for Musculoskeletal Injuries"; Peggy Houglum, Ph.D.; 2005
