Meniscus surgery is a repair, removal or partial removal of either of the curved pieces of cartilage in your knee joints. Patients normally go home the day of the surgery, but full recovery can take weeks or even months. Healing properly from meniscus surgery requires rest, proper positioning of the knee, and a dedication to completing physical therapy in the weeks following the operation.
Instructions
After Surgery
1. Pass the hospital's test to go home. After surgery, your doctor will test your ability to go home by having you walk on crutches, drink something and urinate. Once you're able to do this, you'll be released to a responsible adult to begin recovery at home. Typically this happens on the same day as surgery.
2. Set up your resting spot. Whether you're resting in bed or on a couch, keep your back flat and use two or three pillows to hold your knee higher than your heart. This will prevent the joint from swelling.
3. Keep your knee protected. Do not remove the dressing the doctors placed on your knee, or the stretchy bandage they used to wrap it. The bandage and dressing are there to protect you from infection and keep swelling down, so leave them alone until you go in for physical therapy.
4. Manage your pain. For the first few days, use ice packs for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, a few times a day. Take your pain medication as your doctor prescribed.
5. Check for complications. Keep an eye on your dressing; it's normal to have small amounts of bloody drainage, but if it increases, looks like pus or smells strange, call your surgeon. These may be signs of infection and other complications. Other signs include a fever of more than 101 degrees, breathing difficulties and pain or swelling in the calf, foot or ankle.
6. Walk with crutches. As much as you might want to, don't hobble around. Crutches protect your knee from undergoing too much stress during recovery.
Physical Therapy
7. Regain control of your leg muscles. Your first physical therapy sessions will focus on you establishing balance and coordination. Exercises include quadricep press and straight leg raises. These exercises will help you ease off crutches.
8. Regain your range of motion and build strength. Second-phase therapy exercises include sitting on a table and straightening the knee, using a stationary bicycle and more quadricep exercises.
9. Return gradually to normal physical activity. When your therapist says you are ready for phase three of therapy, you can start working your old activities back into your daily routine. It can take weeks or months to reach this level, depending on the severity of your injury and how well you've recovered from surgery.
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