How to Recover Quickly from a Knee Injury

A mild or moderate ligament injury will cure itself. However, to accelerate the process it’s very important to follow these instructions in the first 72 hours after your injury. They could literally save you weeks from recovery:

• Stop doing high-impact activities like running
• Use ice in sessions of 20 minutes, every 3 or 4 hours
• Elevate your knee above the level of your heart
• Apply compression to control inflammation. It’s recommended to use ice and compression simultaneously

And try to avoid this especially:

• Applying heat to your knee
• Consuming alcohol
• Doing high-impact activities like running
• Making massages

Those practices will increase your blood flow in the affected zone, worsening the inflammation and causing collateral damages, and increasing the time of recovery.

Treating a Knee Injury

After this initial treatment, your doctor could prescribe you anti-inflammatory pain relievers. Follow his instructions and ask him any doubt you may have about your recovery.

Practice stretching and strength exercises if your doctor or physiotherapist allows it. Never stretch until reaching pain.

Will I Need Surgery?

Only your doctor can confirm this. Although there are exceptions, most injuries in collateral ligaments (medial and lateral) won’t require surgery.

Despite that, there may be other cases that require a partial or total knee replacement as your only option. With this procedure, the surgeon will take the tendons from your other leg to replace the ligament.

Talk to your doctor about the options you have and whether you can prevent surgery.

How Long Will it Take me to Recover from a Knee Injury?

Recovery will depend mostly on the severity of the injury, and in every person, it can take a different time. 

In most cases, physiotherapy can help to mitigate the problems and accelerate recovery.

While this happens, and if your doctor agrees with it, you can try a new activity that won’t affect your knee. For example, runners could try swimming. 

Don’t try to skip phases in the recovery of your knees, if you force the joints before being cured you could cause permanent damage. You shouldn’t try to go back to your previous exercise activity unless:

• Your doctor tells you otherwise
• You can bend and stretch your knee without pain
• You don’t feel pain walking, jogging, or jumping
• There isn’t inflammation anymore
• The knee injured is as strong as the healthy one

Some tips for prevention

After knowing how to recover from your knee injury, it’s important to take precautions to avoid new lesions or relapses:

• Keep your muscles strong with regular stretch and strength exercises
• Make sure to warm up with low-impact activities before starting high-impact exercises
• Implement gradual changes in your routine. Don’t do intense workouts abruptly but introduce them at a regular pace

Orthopedic Corner | Leon Mead MD Orthopedic Doctor | 730 Goodlette Road North, Suite 201  Naples Florida 34102 | Phone: (239) 262-1119