People facing ACL reconstruction are lookin at 6 to 18 months of rehabilitation. The tendency during rehab is to speed up the process but that causes anterior knee pain during rehab and when they return to activity. The way to prevent any injuries is to determine the mechanism of trauma and the nature of offending forces. Clinicians sometimes may overevaluate and thus overdiagnose the condition. In most cases of patients who are recovering from ACL reconstruction the pain is from patellar tendinitis or jumpers' knee. Immobilization leads to a loss of muscle strength and that leads to muscle imbalances, then to loss of proprioceptive control and then on to loss of flexibility. All of these contribute to tendinitis. The cuase of this inflammation is inbalanced vastus medialis obliques or VMO.
Good strength building programs should have a thourough waarm-up session with built-in flexibility, a customized progressive resistance exercise regimen, a functional exercise segment and a cooldown component. This program has to be personalized for every patients' needs and have a variety and recovery elements.
The patient will have many hard times during rehabilitation but it shouldn't be because of patellar tendinitis. With a correct plan and attention to details the clinician can eliminate the risk of patellar tendinitis by preventin VMO atrophy.