Today, we’re talking about postoperative rehabilitation after combined medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction and tibial tubercle osteotomy to treat recurrent patellar instability.

As we’ve spoken about before on this show, literature to guide postop recovery after orthopedic surgery is lacking. Often times, we’re using our experience and the opinions of our colleagues and mentors to determine how to best rehab patients after surgery, rather than concrete data. It is critical to progress patients weightbearing, range of motion and strengthening appropriately.

So, it’s great when we see a high-level prospective randomized study come out that compares different rehabilitation strategies. Our paper today is titled “Early Postoperative Rapid Rehabilitation Yields More Favorable Short-Term Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Patellar Realignment Surgery for Recurrent Patellar Dislocation.”