Tibial Plateua recovery after surgery

[physiobob]

Hi Christie, each and every tibial plateau fracture is different. A type 2 is on the less scale of what can be done which is good. Pain & mobility/range of motion is very individual as the brain responds to the trauma in very individual ways and it seems like yours is one that many others would like to have. Some people can't bend at all following the period of immobilization, some have full movement, some have pain, some have only discomfort. What I would say in general is that it can take a while to get the quadriceps working again and to take a long view on the recovery for this one. Normal daily activities will resume within months but getting the leg to have the bulk of the non-injured side will be difficult.

Let us know how you get one once you are back on your feet. If you can post an image of your x-ray that would be even better as a tool for others to look at and be assured that not all of these fractures are so problematic.

For peoples interest

The Schatzker classification system is one method of classifying tibial plateau fractures and splits the fracture into six types. In the Schatzker classification, each increasing numeric fracture category indicates increasing severity, reflecting not only increased energy imparted to the bone at the time of injury but also an increasingly worse prognosis.

The most common fracture of the tibial plateau, is type II.
This system divides tibial plateau fractures into six types:

• Schatzker I - is a wedge-shaped pure cleavage fracture of the lateral tibial plateau, originally defined as having less than 4 mm of depression or displacement.
• Schatzker II - split and depression of the lateral tibial plateau - type I fracture with a depressed component.
• Schatzker III - pure depression of the lateral tibial plateau.
  
  • divided into two subtypes
    
    • Schatzker IIIa - those with lateral depression
    • Schatzker IIIb - those with central depression
    
    
  
  
• Schatzker IV - pure depression of the medial tibial plateau, without a fracture fragment.
• Schatzker V - a bicondylar fracture.
• Schatzker VI - fracture through the metadiaphysis of the tibia.

[Christie]

Well. so far its going slowly..private physio seemed clueless so went to sports injury therapist, far better, using massage and pressure release to get the knee moving, plus a range of excersizes each session and during the day. using the cycle machine as an aid to helping bend the knee is fun !!
5 days to go then i start weight bearing, have stopped wearing the knee brace as this caused more problems that it solved.