What To Do With A Broken Kneecap

Rehabilitation for a broken kneecap can only begin after establishing the type of fracture and treatment options used.

What to do with a broken kneecap.

It takes the brunt of any blows to your knee such as a fall onto your knee or your knee hitting the dashboard. I had a knee replacement about 13. Once your kneecap has healed making the muscles around your knee stronger can help avoid further injury. Any knee injury is hard work to deal with and recover from so hopefully this lens will be useful to others too.

External fixation may be used to hold your kneecap in place and then removed. The kneecap or patella is the bone that protects your knee joint. If the broken pieces are still lined up you ll get a cast to hold everything in place as you heal. The kneecap is susceptible to many fractures and accounts for 1 percent of all broken bones.

A broken kneecap can occur as a result of a direct blow to the kneecap as a result of a motor vehicle collision a fall on the knee being hit on the knee by a heavy object or a gunshot wound to the kneecap. Bruises you can t walk you can t straighten your knee or keep it straight when you raise your leg. Physical therapy may be recommended. Surgery may also be used to remove part or all of your kneecap.

If you break your kneecap your symptoms might include. Symptoms of a broken kneecap fracture are swelling and pain especially when moving the knee back and forth. The patella and quadriceps tendon connects the big muscle in the front of your thigh to your knee joint. This is a serious injury where you break your kneecap usually in a fall.

Wires pins screws or bands may be used to hold the pieces in place. Surgery may be used to move the broken pieces back into their correct positions. If the kneecap is broken in many pieces at its center and the pieces are separated your doctor may use a combination of wires and screws to fix it. I remember my mother breaking her knee cap many years ago.

Removing small portions of the kneecap that cannot be reconstructed may also have good results. Complete removal of the kneecap is a last resort in treating a comminuted fracture. Two types of surgery may be done to repair a fractured kneecap. Sometimes when a broken kneecap occurs the patellar or quadriceps tendon can also tear.

This is very informative and helpful to anyone suffering a broken knee cap. Nancy tate hellams from pendleton sc on february 07 2013. In most cases a broken kneecap is caused by a direct blow to the front of the knee from a car accident sports or a fall onto concrete.