Exploding Muscles and the Rehab Process

Imagine you are skiing down a hill. You see a mogul up ahead and decide to jump it. When you land on your skis, the legs you thought indestructible, decide to fail you. Your patella dislocates, you tear your knee ligaments and your quadriceps muscle explodes inside your thigh. This is the exact situation a Mizuta & Associates patient experienced.

Meet Joe. Joe is currently rehabbing his left knee due to a tear in his vastus medialis oblique (VMO), dislocating his left patella and a torn Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL). Joe recently had surgery to repair all the damage and is currently 4 months post-op. Joe’s situation is unique because his mechanism of injury is very common during skiing season; however the damage is not typical. Instead of tearing his quadriceps muscle at the tendon and close to the knee joint, Joe’s muscle decided to tear towards the middle of the thigh. This type of injury is very infrequent, therefore making Joe’s injury unique to our clinic.

Joe has regained 75% of his strength, but there is still noticeably decreased muscle bulk in the VMO. Joe has returned to working out at the gym and is continuing to work on his functional strength to return to normal level of activity, such as playing basketball, without difficulty or weakness.

To follow Joe and his progress, visit us on Facebook and watch for video updates on our website www.mizutapt.com.