Fixing Lateral Patella Tilt

mattybeck

Has anybody ever had any experience of curing a lateral pattela tilt?
Did a mountain bike event 18 months ago to find that my right knee got sore after a few hours. After a year and an MRI scan surgeon diagnosed lateral patella tilt and said that i should try physio for it. Been doing the physio prescribed exercises for 4 weeks now with the knee getting better at what feels like a glacial speed and some days even feeling like it's no better at all.

Has anybody got any positive experience of recovering from this as a trawl through the internet reveals pretty much only tales of woe from people for whom physio and /or corrective surgery hasn't worked.

Getting pretty despondent now that bike days are over. Has anybody got any advice re their recovery from this?

Thanks

Matty

Eag1E

Im in exactly the same position, had problems on and off for years now.

Im now 5 months into intense physio and ive just started back on the bike and the knee still isnt 100%. 4 weeks is bit early to get despondent, i was told it could take up to 12 months to see results, especially if its been a long term issue.

Make sure you and your physio take a holistic view of your knee problem, from your feet and ankles through to your hip and back, it could be any of these exacerbating the issue. Maybe get a gait analysis from a podiatrist ?, especially if you have low arches, you may benefit from custom orthotics.

Cyclists are notoriously weak outside the sagitall plane, did u have a positive Trendelenburg's sign ? really work on core and hip stability, strengthen the gluteus medius muscle.

As to whether you can ever fully cure the tilt, it depends, you may have just have been born that way and along with a bit of wear and tear as you get older, the problem is rearing its head. The standard protocol is to work on ITB stretching\foam rolling along with strengthening your VMO to try to get the patella to track correctly but having read lots of papers I have my doubts whether this will actually do much.

All i can see is good luck, if mine doesnt improve i will try a durolane injection, worth a shot i s'pose (no pun intended) and if anyone mentions lateral release to you....run.

http://www.princeton.edu/uhs/pdfs/Patel ... ndrome.pdf has a good exercise protocol.

mattybeck

Thanks Eag1E - Not the 'i know a miracle cure' i was hoping to hear but thanks for taking the time to respond.

How often were you seeing the physio and to what end ie. Any manipulation of the knee or just to be shown exercices?

Both surgeon (whom i seemed to have lucked out on given his CV and rep) and the physio seem to think i could be back by July but despite sticking to the exercise prog for a few weeks it's little better. Patience i suppose!!

Eag1E

Ive been having one hour sessions, weekly for the first 6 weeks or so, then fornightly, then every 6 weeks.

Had some electrical muscle stimulation on my glutes, manipulation on my hips\back and deep tissue massage on my ITB (painful!) but mainly working on progressively harder exercises ensuring the form is correct.

Luckily the health insurance has it covered else id be skint by now at £45 a time.