Patella Fracture non-OP Rehab

[cwhitelo]

Hey,

So my story is a little weird, which is why I felt I should make a separate topic and ask specific advice.

Back in November 2023, I was on a motorcycle going ~70-80km/hr when there was sudden road construction I didn't see until the last second. I hit the brakes and flew over top, slammed my knee straight into a pothole and had some other surface wounds.

I didn't know that I had fractured my patella until mid-Februrary when I finally got an MRI. the original xrays did not show the fracture, and it was midline but vertical, fortunately for me. Because it was vertical, I didn't really know that I had fractured anything, and I was in some pain but it wasn't unbearable, I even stopped taking painkillers other than to help sleep (nothing hardcore, just ibuprofen). After the first few weeks, I was pretty much walking normally and never used any crutches or anything. So suffice to say I was very surprised when I found out I had broken my knee cap. The surgeon told me that it looked okay on the MRI and probably will heal totally fine, but I need to start rehab.

I know some exercises to do but I don't know how often, how much is too much, etc. I'm worried to go to an actual PT because the MRI alone was already $2k. So far I've been doing backwards walking on a treadmill, some leg extensions with low weight, and some leg curls with low weight.

How often should I be working it out? How do I know if something healed improperly?

Thanks in advance

[The_KNEEguru]

That was a really unfortunate incident. So sorry. But it is possible to have non-displaced patellar fractures and they usually heal well.

You will need to avoid any loss of range of movement as the area under the patella (anterior interval) may develop adhesions - https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/kn ... r%20tendon.

This list of exercises should help you https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/kn ... er list - https://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/kn ... bilitation especially the passive ROM exercises.
Any patellar mobilisations need to be gentle but are important.