Lateral Release & Chronic Knee Pain

Several months ago I had a knee surgery and a release was also done as one part of the surgery. I myself don't have any problems. I am a martial artist and have started training again.

You say that you have been having that pain for several weeks now. What are you waiting for? See a doctor. The longer you wait, the worse the situation will get.

I don't know what you did after your surgery. But the 1st step is finding a good doctor. Get a 2nd opinion, a 3rd if necesarry and then decide who you'll trust. I myself saw 4 doctors before chosing the one who'll do my surgery. The 2nd step is finding a good therapist. Did you do therapy? Hard enough? Long enough? If you don't do therapy and rehabilitation after the surgery, you will not and cannot recover. Plain and simple. The more time after the surgery passes without proper and regular therapy, the more problems you will have and the possibility of full recovery is less and less.

It has been a while now after your surgery. I don't know what the condition of your knee is right now. Maybe an mri wouldn't be a bad idea. See a good doctor and let him examine your knee thoroughly. Hope it all goes well for you.

I just had a lateral release one and a half months ago. I had a lot of bruising on my knee after the operation. But it has subsided. The thing is, my knee is still swelling. It isn't as big as it was before but it hasn't subsided very much either. They say, the older you are, the longer it takes to heal but i'm only 35 yrs.

I really don't know what to do, at this stage. I go for pt and do my exercises regularly and i'm back to work after 5 weeks but because of the limited space at my cubicle, my leg gets quite painful.

Any advice?

Btw, i'm sure that I will still feel pain in the knee after this coz my cartilage is worn off and the lateral release was done to just correct the knee alignment.

Hello nc,

i am sorry to hear that you are still in pain. I honestly don't know whether or not it's normal to feel that much pain and have that much swelling. Have you seen your doctor recently? Do you have check-ups? What did the doctor say?

After the surgery I did therapy 4 weeks long and then I started doing rehabilitation at the gym. My cartilage was also badly damaged but after all the therapy and exercising, now 6 months after the surgery my doctor examined my knee and was very pleased to see that my knee is stronger and that my cartilage has improved.

You have to be patient. Sometimes things don't heal from today to tomorrow. My doctor told me in the very beginning that my recovery would last 6 months and that's how it was.

Are you sure that you found a good therapist who knows his/her work? Maybe you should talk to your doctor and let him recommend someone good.

Hope everything works out for you.

Hi laura,

thanks for your message.

I saw my doctor 3 weeks ago. All he said was that I was slow in healing. He said that the swelling should have reduced 3 weeks after the operation. It's been almost 2 months and it's still swollen. I'm giving it till end of the week to see if the swelling subsides even if it's just by a little bit. If not, i'm going to see him again.

The therapist has been great and she's been helping me a lot. 2 weeks after the operation, I went to see her. At that time, I couldn't even lift my left of the ground because of the muscle. Now I can. I'm cycling, doing leg press, and I do my own exercises with the weights. But all this hasn't helped the knee reduce in swelling.

I guess the pain is due to the swelling. Once that goes down, I shouldn't have much pain.

I'll take your advice and be more patient. I'll keep icing the leg. I even bought and cold pack and have been icing my leg in the office while working.

I'll let you know when everything goes back to normal.

Thanks again!

I am glad to hear that your therapist is skilled. That is of utmost importance. But i'm still worried about the constant swelling you are having. Does your therapist ice your knee before every therapy? My therapist did it that way and I have never ever had swelling. Maybe here and there some minor swelling, but generally taken nothing.

Your doctor does not seem to be concerned. Maybe he is right. After all he is the doctor. Would you be interested in seeing another doctor and getting a 2nd opinion? You don't have to tell your doctor about it, but it would be good to hear what somebody else has to say. That's what I would recommend. Maybe I am exaggerating. But that's better than having problems.

Make sure to rest your knee and leg. When you lie down, put a pillow or something under your leg and rest your knee that way for a while.

Are your exercises too difficult for you? Under all the pressure of exercising, it is possible that water (or some fluid, I don't know the right medical term) gathers in the knee. Talk to your therapist. Maybe changing the exercises will do the trick. We are all different after all.

When there is a knee injury, a certain cyst appears in the knee. It's called baker's cyst. And it causes the swelling/the fluid to accumulate. There are doctors who would remove it but I think that my doctor is right when he says that that cyst is not the cause of a knee injury, it's actually the consequence. So when the knee problem is solved, the cyst disappears. And that's how it was with my knee. So think about it a little bit.

Was your doctor satisfied with how he performed the surgery?