I’ve had good luck with physiotherapists when it comes to knee injuries. My first two sports related knee injuries healed completely thanks to physiotherapy. I was also in my twenties which probably helped. I followed their instructions for what to do at home (stretching, massaging, exercising) and I had about 7 to 10 visits which included heat packs, electrical stimulation, massage, acupuncture, ultra-sound, and cycling.  The treatment was mainly for ligament damage. At times I felt like the physiotherapist was just going through the motions not expecting any results. I don’t know for sure if it was all for show but I do believe the ultra-sound and cycling may have had a positive affect (I felt tingling). I started physiotherapy about one week after the injuries. The idea was to prevent scar tissue from forming. At home I massaged the ligaments to keep fresh blood flowing to the area and continued treatments for several weeks. I was able to recover fully after both injuries.

Unfortunately, after my third knee injury, which was a full patella dislocation, my knee joint did not return to normal. The new injury left me with patella-femoral syndrome which requires a different set of physiotherapy treatments that many therapists do not know how to treat successfully. Luckily, I was able to find an expert in my city. If you have PF pain, I would highly recommend that you search for a physiotherapist who has successfully treated PF pain, and who is actively following the research in this area. Don’t just go to the nearest physiotherapist, search out the correct one. Also, see my posts on Patello-femoral pain.