post acl reconstruction/patellofemoral tracking issues

I have had 2 scopes in the last 22 months. First one repaired a large bucket handle tear of the medial meniscus. A year and a half later after not completely recovering from the first injury/surgery, I had an acl reconstruction with lateral and medial meniscal tears repaired. Had some slight patellofemoral tracking issues before acl reconstruction and now is alot worse. I am 4 months post op and I do not have full range of motion yet! Alot of quad wastage and major crepitus!!! Thinking of trying vibration machine in conjuction with my regular physio routine daily at home and 3 days a week at a local physiocentre. Anyone have any luck with this vibration technology???

Hi banjo1970

What are the current goals of your physiotherapy? Would you be using the vibration to strengthen the quads and hamstrings? this would be the main purpose.

whole body vibration is used in combination with progressive resistance training. It is a bit of a fad at present. It probably doesn't really do anything although there are a lot of people out there who think it is better that sliced bread.- the studies are mixed on it's effectiveness but on the whole don't support it:

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It might have some use in such things as people with thin bones (osteoporosis) but that isn'r really you is it.

If you really want to give it ago the question then is can it do any harm? = Probably not. There is the possibility that it can make affect your joint position sense temporarily so you may have a decrease in ability to balance on the leg. Could it damage the graft? Probably not at this stage but i would definitely talk this over with your physio or surgeon. Some of the commercial machines do produce quite intense mechanical energy

your rehab might just be at a slower pace than other acls. you've had two seperate surgeries. had both cartilage repaired. i assume you were limited in the amount of flexion you could move to for about 6 to 8 weeks because of the repair? having an acl repair + cartilage repairs means its going to be slower in terms of movement return. is it your flexion or extensio thats limited?

you say that there is a lot of quads wastage still but you also say that you had not adequately rehabbed post the initial scope. it can take quite a while to build up quads strength post op especially if your quads were weak pre op. im a year almost post acl repair and my right quads actually still arent quite as strong as my left.

Was your graft hams or patellar tendon? hamstring strengthenings also very important especially if your graft was hams. id hazard a guess that you probably have some muscle imbalance/weakness going on around the hip aswell if maltracking is an issue.

are you attending a physio regularly or just carrying out a routine given to you by a physio? i would say you need quite a bit of guidance considering your history and limited range of motion at this stage.