Mf on patella and MFC with no brace??????

Hi, dont have an indoor pool unfortunatly;( physio mentioned hydro sessions so will ask her thursday, souns fun.

Im in the uk at the moment but actually work in your great country coaching soccer (in mass). Due to be back at work in march so just enough time to get back to as normal as possible. Luckily i work with kids at an academy so i dont need to run around

Well ive got rid of one crutch, walking ok with it and walking without here and there while i get used to it. Bit of pain in my calf but nothing major. Im doing the slr with ankle weights and icing but feel sooo much happier.

Thanks for your help and kind words

Hey Justin, I am glad to hear you are doing well and excited to get rid of the crutches! I know I was too!!! I hate being incapacitated like that but I worked 5 weeks on them so yes...blissful is a great word to describe the feeling. I take it you are not in the USA? SLR's will be very good for you and band exercises as well....ask your doctor about anything that is going to put pressure on the patella. I would avoid squats until you are pain free. What kind of work do you do? Can you avoid those types of activities at work? The ONLY problem I am having now is if I have to kneel on both knees for a long time. HAving to do CPR last week on a patient killed me when I stood up but the pain was soon over. There is definately hope and having a positive attitude will get you through it! I am here if you need to chat or whatever and I can try to offer any advice I may have along the way.
Keep up the good work and good luck tomorrow!

My knee felt much better after the 6 weeks. I had 3 large grade 4 lesions in my knee the second largest of the back of my patella. Bending my knee was not a problem in the CPM and did not cause any other issues behind the patella. At 6 weeks I handing my doc the crutches and walked out the door. I did very well. Concerning therapy, I worked in an outpatient clinic so I did my therapy every day. I focused on my quads for the most part but not alot on hamstrings because I had an imbalance to begin with and those exercises did put pressure on my patella.

My surgery was in Oct of 06. In late August however, I was jumping waves out in the ocean and one in particular carried me farther than what I expected,.....I landed pretty hard on a shallow sand bar! UGH
Although it was not as bad as at could have been, I did have a cortisone injection and fluid drawn off.
Now I am going through Synvisc injections for help with the pain. My doc says I have the worst knee he has seen.....that being said they were only hoping to buy me time with the microfracture.


In terms of therapy a little more, seated leg extensions could irritate the patella yes. I focused on Straight Leg Raises with my foot pointed straight up and then also with foot turned out. It is important to strengthen the VMO which is the inside muscle of your quad.

One thing I thought was interesting in my whole ordeal was that afterwards I called a friend of mine who is also an ortho surgeon but out of state where i live and who also did my ACL recon on the same knee. He said he always does Synvisc injections starting at 6 weeks out of MF. NOW.......my surgeon said he had never heard of doing that so he didn't recommend. Here I am over a year later getting Synvisc and having AMAZING results! My knee feels sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better, virtually no pain at all after the first 2, my last one is on Tues and I plan on suggesting to my doc again to look into doing them sooner on MF patients...........

The reason a brace is required for MF of the patella is that any bending
of the knee results in the patella sliding through the trochular groove, and
over the femur resulting in friction. The blood clot is then affected in
a negative way, worn down so to speak. The goal is not just weight bearing
but also limiting the patella movement. If the microfracture was not on the
patella nor in the groove then no need for limiting range of motion. Weight
bearing is a different matter entirely.

I had microfracture in 3 large places in my knee in OCt of 06......I asked about a brace but was told I don't really need one because I am to be non weight bearing. After talking to several surgeons......all microfracture procedures should be followed by 6 weeks of NWB along with ice therapy and CPM for passive range of motion.

hope that helps a bit.....

Thanks for your reply,

well after checking my copy of report its says debriderment of patella but MF on MFC. My OS showed me pics last week but i dont recall the patella ones having holes drilled in them. It was the physio that said he'd done MF on pattela so im praying shes got it wrong as I dont remember him mentioning it the day of surgery either. The knee feels ok and i have no pain, guess the real fun starts next week when i bear weight. Hows your knee coming along???

Hi thanks for your reply,

being touch weight bearing for 6 weeks and only doing heel slides (no cpm machine) im not going over 40% flexion much really, but im sure this will still hinder the cartilage growth on patella.
But having the MF on the medial femoral chondoyl also i need to be gaining full rom to help the cells grow for that.
I try to comfort myself in the knowledge that my OS wouldnt let me home without one, but after reading the horror stories on here im not soo sure lol.
I dont like tt mention it as they dont like to be told how to do there job. Oh well i think ill limit the flexion myself and carry on with the other exercises.

Hi I had microfracture on the 10th of Dec, was told i had a small area done on MFC (1x1cm) and a slightly larger area on Patella.
My only concern after reading about MF is i havent had a brace for the patella. Is this normal as ive had another area done at the same time?? Pretty worried as ive been gaining full ROM which has probably going to effect the the success of the patella microfracture.
But on the flipside had it been limited to 30/40% im sure that would maybe effect the success of the area done on the MFC. .
I have no pain and im pretty happy with progress so far, apart from the grinding noise i get when i straighten my leg whilst sitting, which i think i read somewhere wasnt good if youve had pattela microfracture.
Im confused!!!!, would be grateful if anyone has an words of wisdom