Do You Need Surgery for an MCL Tear or Sprain? How Long to Recover?

Published: May 07, 2023 Duration: 00:04:23 Category: Howto & Style

Tags : knee MCL sprain MCL tear medial collateral ligament how do you know if your mcl is healed does mcl tear require surgery mcl treatment knee mcl sprain recovery time recovery time

Trending searches: mcl sprain timeline

Introduction In this video, I'm going to answer two of the most common questions people ask us, which is, one, “Do I need surgery for my MCL tear or sprain?” And second, “How do I know when my MCL is actually healed, that I can play sports again?” For those of you who don't know me, my name is Maryke. I'm one of the physiotherapists from sports-injury-physio.com, where you can get online physiotherapy assessment as well as treatment of your injuries. Have a look at the Description of this video if you want a link to our website. Do you need surgery for your MCL tear or sprain? Do you require surgery if you've had an MCL tear or strain? The good news is, no. The research shows that even Grade 3 tears, where the whole ligament is torn, can heal really well if you immobilise it in a brace for six weeks. Now, this is not a brace that doesn't allow any movement; it's important to actually have some movement – it should just support the MCL. And I've made a whole video about what type of braces are the best and what to look out for in that. So, have a look at the Description of this video if you want more info about that. The second thing that's important is, you have to do the correct rehab exercises to strengthen your leg muscles, strengthen the ligaments, and also develop the control in your leg. There are some occasions where surgery may be required, and one of them is, for instance, if the … when you tore the MCL, you also pulled a small piece of bone out, and the part of the muscle … of the hamstring has now moved in between the ligaments and the bone, and now they can't grow together. So, there are some cases where your surgeon may say, "Uh, you actually do need surgery", but the vast majority of people will get away without surgery. How do you know that your MCL has actually healed? Now, there are two things we're gonna ... How do you know when your MCL has healed? two concepts we're going to talk about. One is about, has it healed? And the second is, is it actually strong enough for your sport? Because that's important as well. So, to know if it's healed is, you can check, have I got full range of motion in my knee? So, can I bend it all the way up, all the way straight, without any pain or discomfort? Second, when somebody tries to do that gap test on my knee by pushing in, trying to gap it on the inside, is that pain-free and is it stable? If you answer yes to both of those, your ligament has very likely healed. But now, it doesn't mean that it's strong enough for your sport. So, let's think about this. If you're somebody who just walks, your ligament doesn't get that much force through it. But if you're somebody who plays a sport like soccer or football, you've got to be able to change direction, so that MCL is going to have to withstand quite high forces. Now, the only way that you can get it strong enough for your sport is to go through a step-by-step programme of slowly building that strength. So, you'll typically start with your easy exercises that your physio prescribed in the first few weeks – really just range-of-motion and stuff. And then, as you get stronger, you'll start doing like squats, and you'll start then adding into different direction lunges, for instance, adding some weight. But eventually you need to build up to jogging in straight lines, changing direction slowly. Once you can do that, you start adding speed to it, because that increases the forces on it. So, you can see it's a slow process, and there's no one moment, now you're ready for it. It's about, what have I done in the last couple of weeks determines how strong I am at this point, and what I should be doing in the next couple of weeks. So, your physio will be able to tell you when you're safe to go back to sport, but it's important to go through that process. To give you an How long for an MCL to heal? idea of timelines: A very minor MCL sprain usually takes about four weeks, maybe six weeks to fully rehabilitate. A medium one about 6 to 12 weeks, and a complete tear usually about 12 weeks or longer to get back to full sport. Now, remember, if you want more information about that, I've made other videos about the braces and treatment options for it. So, have a look at the links in the Description of this video if you want to watch those. Brilliant! Hope you found How we can help that useful. And remember, if you need more help with an injury, you're welcome to consult one of the team via video call – link to the website in the Description of this video. Take care!

Share your thoughts

Related Transcripts

MCL Sprain Rehab Program | Early, Mid-, & Late Stage | Exercise Progressions

Category: Education

In this video we are going to look at a couple progressive exercise options for rehab of medial collateral ligament injuries of the knee. hi and welcome to physiotutors. the mcl is the most commonly injured ligament in the knee. luckily it has the greatest healing potential of any knee ligament... Read more

MCL INJURY TREATMENT | MCL INJURY EXERCISES | WHAT IS MCL SPRAIN AND IT'S TREATMENT IN HINDI

Category: Education

Hello viewers, welcome to my channel. i am dr. abhijeet and in today's video, we will talk about mcl i.e. medial collateral ligament injury. this injury can be in the form of sprain or tear. so, the mcl is in the inner part of our knee. the upper part of this is attached to the femur bone and the lower... Read more

Injury forces Packers QB Jordan Love to miss time, source says. Here's what we know

Category: People & Blogs

Injury forces packers qb jordan love to miss time source says here's what we know packers qb jordan love is expected to miss multiple weeks due to a knee injury sustained in a game against the eagles early tests indicate a sprained mcl that won't require surgery backup options include malik willis and... Read more

ACL and MCL Tear and Surgical Repair - 3D Animation

Category: Education

Your knee ligaments work together to keep the knee stable and moving properly. an acl mcl tear is a severe injury of the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament. when a combined acl mcl injury occurs, one may feel or hear a “pop,” followed by swelling, pain, and joint... Read more

Understand Knee Ligament Injuries (ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL) - 3D animation

Category: Education

Introduction to knee ligament injuries the knee is a complex joint that relies on 4 main ligaments to provide stability and support. an injury to any one or combination of ligaments requires expert diagnosis and care. understanding which ligaments are affected, along with the degree of injury, will... Read more

ACL Prevention Exercises – FIFA 11 Presented by Dr. Momaya

Category: Education

Hi i'm dr mamaya i'm an orthopedic surgeon and chief of sports medicine at uab i'm passionate about acl injuries and specifically prevention of acl injuries today we're going to discuss fifa 11 a program designed to help reduce injury risk an acl injury can be devastating for an athlete's career females... Read more

Packers coach Matt LaFleur addresses Jordan Love’s injury in loss to Eagles.#nfl #packers

Category: Sports

And ultimately didn't score enough points to win the game i mean give philly a ton of credit they made some some big plays um certainly we knew the talent they had offensively uh jaylen herz is a hell of a quarterback they got one of the best old lines in ball and then they just got a lot of playmakers... Read more

Expert Explains Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Knee Injury & Return Timeline

Category: Sports

What happened everyone it's raj from 3cb oklahoma city thunder guard shay julius alexander suffered a grade two tear to his mcl medial collateral ligament that sits on the inside of the knee and is a major primary restraint to valgus inward force return timeline typically these come with a four to six... Read more

Expert Explains Anthony Davis Injury (Knee MCL Tear) & Return Timeline

Category: Sports

Heroin het rising pcb lakers dynamic baby in 10 db cinder is live from this paper tiger woods and falling on us mijn emmer riser from was diagnosed ago mcl spring moeilijker zou ik mijn timeline release for words with nice is likely you were great to mother care for a very young great st eerst want... Read more

Derrick Brown injury update: Panthers make final call on DT’s potential season-ending knee…

Category: People & Blogs

Derek brown injury update panthers make final call on dt's potential season ending knee the carolina panthers have plac defensive tackle derek brown on injured reserve ending his 2024 season due to a knee injury sustained against the new orleans saints coach dave canales acknowledged the significant... Read more

COWBOYS CHAT ✭ WEEK 1 RECAP! 🔥 Ferguson KNEE Injury UPDATE; Dak's NEW Contract DETAILS; Saints NEXT!

Category: Sports

It's r [music] hey hey hey mon on the beat [music] mon on the [music] beat hey [music] hey [music] woo what is up youtube my cowboys family here bringing you guys the latest update on our very own dallas cowboys and of course as always thank you so much for joining us here tonight take a second to hit... Read more

Expert Explains Khris Middleton Injury (MCL) & Return Timeline Scenarios

Category: Sports

What happened hey it’s raj from 3cb. milwaukee bucks wing khris middleton sprained the mcl - medial collateral ligament - of his left knee on this play vs the chicago bulls. khris left the game and didn’t return. severity & timelines his timeline will depend on the severity of the injury with grade... Read more