The above video is of a recent patient who is 5 weeks post medial meniscectomy. He has already returned to some moderate skiing and is mostly pain free at this point, but you can see in the video that all things are not quite right with his knee.
When I examined him, I noticed that he has laxity at his lateral collateral ligament and he was slightly more bowlegged (tibial varum) compared to the left knee.
You can see the right knee shift laterally (to the right) when he lands. This is a result of the ligament gapping on the outside of the knee causing forces to compress on the medial (inside) of the knee. This may be a reason why he got a meniscus tear in the first place.
This is a problem and a risk factor for further injury and something we are working on in clinic. When he snow skis, he reports difficulty turning to the left while turning to the right he has better control. What I think is happening is that right knee also “gaps” and, as a result, he loses his inside edge on his outside ski causing him to have poor control.
He was discharged in 6 visits and had an excellent outcome. FOTO predicted that we would see him for 11 visits. The cost savings is about $400 dollars just from PT visits alone.
His outcome was fantastic; he exceed his predicted score in FOTO. He able to demonstrate that the dysfunction in the video he could control, without the need of additional bracing for sport specific activity. This patient reported he had good ability to turn while skiing, especially in bumps and powder.
Good sports physical therapy, post-surgery, not only works on the basic range of motion and strength after surgery, but also look at limiting risk factors for additional orthopedic injury.
There is a reason why Metropolitan Physical Therapy is in the top 7% with orthopedic physical therapy care in the 12 months, as shown by our FOTO outcomes.