Partial tear Quad tendon

[Rickson]

Is surgery the only solution? Been living with it for about 6 years, but lately it's gotten worse. I can walk around just fine, but I'm not taking any chances with my favorite sport. Sorry, folks, I'm talkin about basketball. Anyone have experience with this injury?

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

6 YEARS?!

By now, the torn tissue is probably healed in place by fibrous tissue (scar tissue), and it's not as elastic as the original tendon tissue (sorry, the name escapes me at the moment, but you know what I mean). And because of this inferior elasticity, it's probably overloading the rest of the healthy quadriceps to carry out the function.

And honestly, you really can't "repair" scar tissue, because it's already repaired by the body. The surgery for a relatively fresh torn tendon is the stitching of the torn pieces, thus allowing the body's natural healing process to take place. Which, unfortunately, after 6 years, and if you're still able to play basketball, then the healing process is more or less complete.

Having said that, if you were to go in and have any worked done, you're only going to get more scar tissue, the surgery itself is an injury (pretty big one!). Hence why most people who go into surgery will lose some degree of range of motion.

Sorry, this may not have been what you want to hear.

I have a partially torn UCL on my left thumb from a snowboarding incident, it's been ~2 years and I doubt I'll have it repaired.

You can always consult your doctor about this, and perhaps seek out a debridement procedure to clean out some of that scar tissue/loose bodies on the quads. But again, the surgery itself is an injury, you'll risk scar tissue building elsewhere in the knee joint.

Lastly, any sort of surgery will result in a considerable lengthy lay-off, and sometimes, you'd just "lose it".

[charliefedererer]

Sorry to hear you are still having problems Rickson.

(Miss seeing more of your great posts here.)


Unfortunately I think Say Chi Sin Lo is mostly correct above.

But "partial" can mean so many different things, in your partial tear.

And if it has been a while since an exam and imaging, the process may have changed, or even a new problem is present.

Won't it really come down to visiting a trusted physician to determine your best course of action?

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Originally Posted by charliefedererer

Sorry to hear you are still having problems Rickson.

(Miss seeing more of your great posts here.)


Unfortunately I think Say Chi Sin Lo is mostly correct above.

But "partial" can mean so many different things, in your partial tear.

And if it has been a while since an exam and imaging, the process may have changed, or even a new problem is present.

Won't it really come down to visiting a trusted physician to determine your best course of action?

Also, I want to add to the fact that sometimes, the torn pieces of partial tears can get "caught". And I can't imagine that being fun at all.

Partial tears generally don't require surgeries, the body can take care of it. Unless the pieces get caught/trapped within the join and the torn pieces are just shaved off during the surgery. Or, if the partial tear is approaches to that of a complete tear, AND/OR the patient requests to return at/near pre-injury performance level.

I was the latter with my shoulder. Had a partially torn supraspinatus and posterior labrum, told my doctor I want to return to pre-injury performance level. So he went in and cleaned up the mess, essentially putting the joint in the best possible environment to heal.

[charliefedererer]

Originally Posted by Say Chi Sin Lo

Also, I want to add to the fact that sometimes, the torn pieces of partial tears can get "caught". And I can't imagine that being fun at all.

Partial tears generally don't require surgeries, the body can take care of it. Unless the pieces get caught/trapped within the join and the torn pieces are just shaved off during the surgery. Or, if the partial tear is approaches to that of a complete tear, AND/OR the patient requests to return at/near pre-injury performance level.

I was the latter with my shoulder. Had a partially torn supraspinatus and posterior labrum, told my doctor I want to return to pre-injury performance level. So he went in and cleaned up the mess, essentially putting the joint in the best possible environment to heal.

That's a very good point.

Inflammation can produce an overabundance of internal scar tissue that can "glue together" tendon/muscle/ligaments that should be smoothly gliding past one another during movement.

All the more reason for a careful reevaluation by a local expert to determine what is really going on in Rickson, and what options are open to him.

[Rickson]

Thanks for the input, guys.

[3fees]

What You Need to Heal a Tendon Injury:

A Deep Tissue Therapeutic Inferno Wrap® to increase Bloodflow to the injured area (BFST® Therapy).

A Professional Cold Compression Freezie Wrap® to reduce inflammation (as soon as possible).

High Quality Therapeutic Ultrasound to increase the rate of recovery (decreases inflammation and flushes toxins from inflamed tissue) and to break down scar tissue later on.

These three treatments are the fundamental elements for rapid Tendon repair. These tools are what the top professional athletes use on injuries every single day. That's why they're playing grueling professional sports days or weeks after an injury. Until recently, if you weren't a professional athlete, you couldn't even get these treatments at home. The rest of us would get them in expensive physio therapy 3 times per week for weeks on end. The reason Pro athletes recover in days while the rest of us hurt for weeks is because professional athletes get these treatments 3 times each day instead of 3 times each week.

http://www.aidyourtendon.com/?REF=GTendon

[ollinger]

^^ sounds like a load of crap. Wraps that heat up the skin are more likely to DECREASE blood flow to deeper structures like tendons by what's known as a "steal syndrome." This means that the heat dilates blood vessels in the SKIN superficially (causing redness) so that blood flow is shunted to the skin and away from the other structures.

[3fees]

Try reading the whole article, heating goes to the tendon thru many layers of skin,,alternatives should be explored and surgery the very last resort. Of course with serious injuries get a doctor into the hot/ cold ,self physcial therapy- treatment plan.