My doctor prescribed a Splint by a company called Dynasplint. You wear it 6 to 8 hours a day. It applies backward Pressure from 5 to 25 pounds adjustable to slowly stretch and bend your knee. You can achieve about 3° of stretch per week. You wear it while sitting and watching TV. The rental is about $200 a month and covered by most insurance companies. However after wearing it a couple of days I realized That you can achieve the same stretch while watching TV by resting your foot against an immovable object. By moving your foot About an inch you can change the amount of pressure by 5 pound increments. I plan to send the split back.
I expect to achieve about 10° per month which is consistent with what DynaSplit advertises. It is a slow but sure way to get your range of motion back. My doctor opted this solution instead of a manipulation under Anastasia.
The only thing that helps if the knee is installed correctly is to continue to do therapy and keep increasing the amount of movement. I have found that an exercise bike is the best thing to get your flex back. Set the seat high enough that you can just almost rotate the pedals all the way. pedal back and forth slowly until you can go all the way around (put your heal on the pedal instead of the ball of your foot, then gradually move your foot forward as it gets easier to pedal around). When you can pedal comfortably all the way around on the ball of your foot it is time to lower the seat one position and start over. It will hurt trying to go past your last stopping point but it will gradually give you more flex. Pedaling backwards first is easier than forward. You should do this twice a day for about 15 minutes.
It has been 4 weeks since my surgery this time, and I can go more than 90 degrees already. It will be painful as you increase to each step but it is worth it in the end.
Hi,
How are you? The stiff total knee is also a painful total knee, because the tight, unyielding soft tissues are under stress during everyday activities.In a stiff total knee joint the prosthesis is placed too high, so that the patella is too low -the new joint line touches the patella.
The faulty position of the total knee prosthesis increases the tension in the extensor apparatus which cannot lengthen during the knee bending. Besides, there is also a tight scar in the extensor musculature, that further hinders the lengthening of the musculature during knee bending.
The PCL is tight and hinders the bending of the new knee joint.If total knee is stiff (less than 90 degrees of flexion) although you have had a good range of motion in your knee before the operation and if the X-ray picture shows that the total knee prosthesis is placed correctly, then a manipulation of your knee under narcosis may be considered.
The manipulation under narcosis may be done under the first three postoperative months. Later on, the soft tissue scares have matured and the tissues cannot be stretched passively.
Consult your orthopaedician for further assistance.
Bes