The X10 Knee Recovery System
I think the X10 helps prevent scar tissue in general. If we can prevent general scar tissue, we certainly can prevent scar tissue on steroids, when you talk about something like a fibrosis, because you get in and you get moving early. Weve had physicians who love the progress of their patients so much, they dont want to put the CPM in the hospital, they want to bring X10 into the hospital, okay? And thats amazing, to take someone whos an orthopedic surgeon whos been an orthopedic surgeon for a long time, whos relied on the CPM for a long time and have them say, I dont want to do that anymore. I like the X10. I like how it works so much, Im going do it even sooner. I want that patient on the X10 the hour after they come out of surgery or in those kinds of parameters.
And so X10 as far as preventing fibrosis I think is absolutely what it does. But beyond that, I think if you have a patient that has fibrosis in their knee, or has some kind of a contracture, you can also bring X10 in in that situation, because of the ability to alter the hold times on the machine. On the X10 you can hold in a challenging but not painful position for three seconds, or for longer than that. With the fibrotic joint, I just need to hold longer. So even if a joint is fibrotic, we may not have to worry about a manipulation.
Scar : Faq About Scars
Did you know scars dont tanthey burn? The structural properties of a scar are different from regular skin. Scar tissue doesnt have melanin . In fact, scars are more susceptible to UV damage and get sunburned more easily than regular skin. Always put sunscreen on and cover your scar in the sun!
Q: What is a Scar?
A: A scar is a mark left on your skin after an injury or an incision. Scar tissue forms during the healing process as the body produces collagen fibres to close and heal a wound. These collagen fibres do not grow in the same, consistent direction, and therefore are discoloured and can have an uneven texture. A scab forms over the wound to protect the area from germs. Once healed, the scab will fall off and your newly formed scar will reveal itself. Is the human body cool or what?!
Q: When Does a Scar form?
A: There are three phases of wound healing and scar formation after an incision is made during a surgery or a deep wound is inflicted.
3 Phases of Wound/ Incision Healing:
Your scar will be visible after scabbing is gone. This usually happens 10+ days after an incision or a deep cut/ wound.
Q. What Determines the Appearance of My Scar?
Q: How Long Will My Scar Heal For?
For tips on healing your scar faster, check out our article Scar Healing, Size & Treatment After Joint Replacement Surgery.
Enough about the basics! Lets get into massaging scar tissue.
Symptoms Of Scar Tissue Pain Can Include Some Of The Following:
- Itching and burning sensation near the scar
- Tenderness and sensitivity in the region around the scar
- Inflammation or swelling near the injury
- Warm feeling in the affected area
- Lack of mobility in the injured joint
Treating scar tissue pain, along with understanding how to get rid of fibrous tissue under the skin, is important for people seeking medical intervention for pain, discomfort, and mobility issues.
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Quad Exercises To Do After Knee Replacement
If you recently had a total knee replacement, youre probably experiencing some pain, including pain at the front of your thigh. The quadriceps tendon, which is located above the kneecap, is typically cut and sutured back together during surgery. Physical therapy exercises that engage your quad musclesalong with rest and active management of knee swellingare essential to your healing, recovery, and pain reduction.
After a knee replacement, you can expect to be given a rehabilitation program to help you strengthen your new knee. Read What to Expect After Knee Replacement
- Your quadriceps femoris is made up of 4 large muscles at the front of the thigh. When they are contracted, the knee straightens.
- The quadriceps tendon attaches the large quad muscles to the kneecap. The quad tendon extends into the patellar tendon, which attaches to the kneecap and the front part of the upper shin.
- The quad muscles and tendons are essential for knee stability and movement. They keep the knee from buckling, and they help absorb impact forces during activity.
- After a traditional knee replacement surgery, it typically takes 10 to 12 weeks for the quad tendon tissue to heal. It will probably take longer to regain all strength and function.
After surgery, scar tissue can build up around the quad tendon and other soft tissues. While scar tissue is very important in the initial healing process as it protects the incision, it can:
Can You Walk After Knee Manipulation
It is essential to regain functional range of motion by 6 weeks after surgery. Remember, patients can only reliably regain knee range of motion for the first 6 weeks following knee replacement surgery. Beyond this point, scar tissue becomes too stiff and inflexible for simple stretching to be successful.
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Benefits Of Massaging Scar Tissue
Overall, there are many benefits of treating scar tissue, including the following:
Improves mobility and elasticity of the wounds scar
Helps improve the appearance of your scar
Helps you regain feeling and sensation in the affected area
Decreases numbness and tingling
Relieves pain
Restores normal function
Treating scar tissue damage is absolutely necessary to experience these benefits. Otherwise, you might find yourself dealing with excessive scar tissue buildup and a scar with limited flexibility. Acting quickly to treat scar tissue with wave therapy is crucial. Sign up for your consultation now!
Interested in using pulse wave therapy to break down your scar tissue or learning more about this scar management procedure? Flagstone Medical can help you get started, so get in touch!
*This service is currently only offered at our Long Beach location.
How I Massaged My Knee During Physical Therapy
It tends to be painful using a knuckle, walking on the knees or using a hard object to press into the painful area in the hopes to break down the scar tissue. To help break up the scar tissue, you can start with warming up the tissue in the area first. 2.) the indirect approach for addressing scar tissue after knee surgery is not nearly as common and is a more subtler and gentler approach for breaking down scar tissue.
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Scar Tissue Massage Techniques
When you start physical therapy for scar tissue management, there are several procedures your therapist will perform to help heal scar tissue:
- Lubrication. A small amount of baby oil, lotion, or vitamin E oil may be used to keep the scar and surrounding skin pliable during massage.
- Cross friction massage. This involves using one of two fingers to massage the scar in a direction perpendicular to the line of the scar. Performed for 510 minutes, this technique ensures proper alignment of collagen fibers.
- Myofascial release. In this technique, the hands are used to slowly and lightly massage the skin and underlying tissues around the scar. Your physical therapist can feel for restrictions of tissue, also known as fascia, and work to improve movement in those areas.
- Instrument assisted massage. A relatively new technique, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization involves using specialty stainless steel instruments of various sizes to massage and mobilize tissues, helping break up the built-up collagen cells.
Along with these massage techniques, stretching and flexibility exercises may also be implemented to help elongate and improve the mobility of injured tissues.
Surgery For Arthrofibrosis Of The Knee
- If range of motion is not regained through non-operative treatment methods, surgery may be needed to remove the mechanical block.
- The scar tissue can be removed during a minimally-invasive knee arthroscopy. Arthroscopy lets orthopedic surgeons see inside the knee without making a large cut in the knee. The surgeon operates through a few small incisionseach about the size of a buttonhole.
- A tiny camera inserted through one incision shows the inside of the knee on a high-definition video monitor. The orthopedic surgeon looks at the inside of the knee and does the procedure using tiny instruments inserted into the other incisions.
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Lunging Hip Flexor Stretch
An effective way to stretch out your hip flexors is to kneel one leg, keeping your shin on the ground. With one leg back and the other leg forward in a kneeling position, push forward on the knee that is facing up and closest to you.
It is important to keep your torso and head aligned during this stretch. Note, this might be painful to do on a hard floor and is often best done on a yoga mat. Hold this stretch for at least 20 seconds and then switch legs.
Treatment To Break Up Scar Tissue
For minor scars, people can take several at-home treatment approaches to get rid of scar tissue. Regularly applying moisturizer to an external scar and massaging it in the direction of the tissue can keep the scar softer and more flexible and it may decrease tissue sensitivity.
There are also silicone gel patches that adhere to the skin and can help promote tissue healing. Wrapping or taping the injury might also decrease tension and inflammation.
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Ways To Manage Your Knee’s Scar Tissue After Surgery
Your knee is vital for everyday function. This important joint carries your body through every activity of your life. With injury, the knee joint and the adjoining tissues, ligaments and cartilage can be compromised, requiring surgery for repair. With surgery comes scar tissue, a very tough and inflexible fibrous material that can hinder the range of motion within your joint 1.
If you are experiencing serious medical symptoms, seek emergency treatment immediately.
It’s not unusual to be self-conscious about scar tissue after knee surgery. Although it cannot be fully removed, it can be managed. In fact, scar tissue is essential to the healing process for the knee to eventually move and function properly again. Through various physical therapy interventions, including massage and other manipulation methods, scar tissue in the knee can be managed.
Read more:How To Prevent Scar Tissue Formation
Why Scar Tissue Massage
Massaging scar tissue has many benefits. Here are of the main reasons to regularly scar massage :
- Helps improve blood flow, which promotes healing and the scars pliability.
- Drains excess fluid to reduce swelling and proliferation.
- Helps regain feeling in the area and decrease numbness, tingling, soreness.
- Increases range of movement and the scars flexibility. This makes movements feel less restrictive and tight.
- May help with the appearance of your scar.
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Surgery To Get Rid Of Scar Tissue
Surgery is typically a last resort for treating scar tissue pain on injuries or problems where the scarred area is deep and excessive. Here, physicians try to remove damaged tissue or may even perform skin grafts by transplanting healthy skin from another part of the body.
There are always associated risks with surgery, as well as significant recovery downtime. Because of this, every outcome should be thoroughly discussed with your physician.
While scar tissue may appear to simply be an unattractive skin condition to some people, others have internal scarring damage that causes pain or impedes movement and overall athletic performance.
If left untreated, damaged tissue that becomes scarred can cause more severe problems in the future.
Whatever the case may be, the treatment methods outlined here should provide some good options for people who are wondering how to break up or get rid of scar tissue.
Image courtesy of Sander van der Molen.
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Best Practices To Remember
There are a couple of things that will help you make the most of your scar tissue management:
Lubrication. Its important to use a small amount of oil when massaging your scar tissue as this will keep the tissue pliable, making it easier to massage. Most people use baby oil, vitamin E oil, or simply lotion. Again, remember to only do this with a mature scar to keep the lubricant from causing an infection once it enters the body.
Stretching. Its also important to engage in stretching and flexibility exercises. So take as much time as you can to stretch your scar tissue gently in addition to massaging. This will also help remodel the scar by elongating it and improving its mobility.
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Shockwave Therapy To Break Up Scar Tissue
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy, also called ESWT, sends impulse pressure waves deep into injured and scarred tissue to break up damaged tissue on a cellular level.
Pressure waves created by a Shockwave Therapy machine increase blood flow and the growth of new blood vessels to the affected area to improve healing more quickly than other methods.
Unlike surgery or injections, Shockwave Therapy is a non-invasive treatment approach, so there is no risk of infection or recovery downtime.
It can be used for chronic or acute soft tissue injuries, as well as post-operative surgery scarring and pain.
Can You Massage Away Scar Tissue
Under the right conditions, scar massage and manual therapy techniques can have a significant impact on scar tissue release. It is important to note that your scar must be fully healed before you begin any type of scar massage therapy. If you begin too soon you could cause the wound to reopen or tear, which could cause pain or lead to an infection.
Using massage techniques on scar tissue will be most effective in the first 2 years, while the scar is still forming. During this timeframe, you may notice significant benefits to massaging scar tissue, including:
- Improved blood flow to promote scar healing progression
- Increased range of motion, making the scarred area not feel so tight
- Reduced swelling by draining excess fluid
- Less scar tissue build up, which can reduce muscle stiffness and weakness
- Reduced sensation of numbness and tingling
Massage can reorganize scar tissue, helping your body heal faster, and potentially reduce the appearance of your scar. After consulting with your healthcare provider, you may want to try massaging your scar at home. Here are a few tips to ensure it is done properly:
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Cause For Scar Tissue In Your Knee
Scar tissue forms in the body after the healing of a wound. It is the body’s natural response to trauma. In the knee, this could come from a surgical procedure or some traumatic injury.
Unlike healthy skin, scar tissue is fibrous and dense and is not very elastic. When scar tissue forms in abundance around a healed injury in the knee, it can cause the joint to “stick”. This can prevent your joint from its full range of motion.
Arthrofibrosis of the knee, or commonly known as “frozen knee”, is caused by inflammation and excessive scar tissue build up in the knee joint and surrounding tissues. This can be scar tissue inside the knee joint, or around the surrounding tissue of the knee. Arthrofibrosis in the knee is very common to experience after arthroscopic knee surgery or replacement procedures.
Scar Tissue After Knee Replacement
I had knee replacement surgery 6 weeks ago . Through PT I have been working on breaking up the scar tissue only for it to regrow by the time I get back to PT two days later. I have been massaging at home, using a hand held massager and roller. It is painful and swollen. I am getting very disheartened. Any suggestions as to what else I can do. Has anyone had laser treatments to break up scar tissue? Were they effective?
Hi there . yes, Ive had scar tissue develop also. It developed slowly over time, but by the time I hit the 1 year mark, my surgeon went in arthroscopically and cleaned it up. But, it never was right, and in another year I had to have a revision a totally new replacement. Since then, my knee could not be any better. I dont know why this happens to some and not to others but after several other options had been tried, including the arthroscopic surgery, I opted to just do the revision . Im glad I did.abby
hi relating but early in my recovery, 5 months, my MD says if scar tissue does not go away I will get arthroscopic procedure. My knee was only damaged in the knee cap, the other sides are good. When you had your knee replaced were the other parts of the knee damaged and in need of replacement? Or was it a decision to go to TKR suggested to solve the problem because partials dont really work?
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How To Massage Scarring And Scar Tissue
Scar tissue management generally includes the following massage techniques:
Cross friction massage. This technique requires you to use one or two fingers to massage the scar while making sure your movements are perpendicular to the direction of the scar line. This helps to ensure collagen fibers are aligned properly. Ideally, cross friction massage should be performed for at least 5 to 10 minutes two or three times a day.
Myofascial release. With myofascial release, the hand motions are slow during the massage, and only light pressure is applied. This method works best to improve movement in areas where there are restrictions of tissue.