Fractured Patella. Please Help!

[JonathanB1083]

Well, this is my first post, however not under the best of circumstances. I fractured my right patella at work the other night and am currently in a knee immobilizer. I go back to the Doctor in a few days and will then find out if surgery is necessary. My orthopedic said that it does not appear that there is any displacement, which is a good thing. I am able to extend my leg although it is very painful at the fracture point. Best case scenario is that I will remain in the immobilizer for 6 weeks, and the PT. My question is: What kind of recovery can I expect? I love squats and will be devastated if I cannot do them after I recover. If anyone has found them self in this position, please let me know how your situation played out. I have recently made some really good gains, which I will unfortunately be loosing. I just hope that I can get back on the horse after all this is done.

[killatiger]

you should be able to do squats again if it heals appropriately. But once they clear you, you will have to really ease back into them.

[Raptor2k]

I didn't fracture my patella a few years back but a piece of it got chipped off from the backside after I twisted my leg somehow going up for a spike in volleyball.

Required a scope and got my patella smoothed out. For some reason I lost a lot of mass in my quadriceps. Took a while for the pain to go away while running and doing other certain exercises, probably because my quadricep wasn't strong enough to support it well enough.

When you're fully healed, ease your way back in and always remember to ice if necessary. Do all the necessary therapy exercises and make sure you're getting good nutrition. I'm back to doing squats but my quads still need work.

Stay positive and you'll be fine.

[JonathanB1083]

Thanks for the insight. My Doctor already told me that I would lose quite a bit of muscle mass in my leg. I am hoping that though PT, I will be able to regain all that I lose.

[Raptor2k]

I don't think you'll regain all of what you have through PT. You will need traditional lifting again for that (actually tearing your muscles and rebuilding w/ protein synthesis). PT will probably only allow your leg to stabilize itself again and make it strong enough to prevent re-injury.

Really depends on how much you lose to begin with. I would try finding out if there's any way to prevent as much muscle loss as possible if you require surgery.