Post-Surgical Rehabilitation

Surgeries we commonly rehabilitate

• Total knee replacement and total hip replacement.
• ACL reconstruction and other knee ligament surgery.
• Arthroscopic knee surgery, including meniscus repair and trimming.
• Rotator cuff repair and other shoulder surgery.
• Fracture fixation — plates, screws, nails and external fixation.
• Spinal surgery, including discectomy and fusion.
• Tendon repairs in the hand, wrist, ankle and foot.

Working to the surgeon’s protocol

Post-operative rehabilitation is not a free-form process. Repaired tissue has a healing timeline, and many procedures come with explicit restrictions — how much weight you may put through the limb, which movement ranges to avoid, and how long a brace stays on. Exceeding those limits can compromise the repair.

So please bring your operation notes, discharge summary and any written protocol to the first appointment. Where instructions are unclear or your recovery is not following the expected pattern, we will say so and recommend you check back with your surgeon rather than guessing.

The phases of post-operative recovery

Early phase work protects the repair while preventing the complications of immobility: swelling control, gentle range of motion within permitted limits, activating muscles that switch off after surgery, and safe walking with an aid where required.

The middle phase restores full range and rebuilds strength as tissue healing allows, progressively removing support from aids and braces. This is typically the longest phase and the one where consistency matters most.

The final phase restores the specific demands of your life — stairs, prayer positions, squatting, lifting, driving, and sport or manual work where relevant. Being able to bend a knee on a plinth is not the same as trusting it on a staircase, and rehabilitation should continue until the second one is true.

Common post-operative problems we manage

• Persistent stiffness and difficulty regaining full range of motion.
• Swelling that keeps returning after activity.
• Muscle inhibition — the quadriceps that will not contract properly after knee surgery is the classic example.
• Altered walking pattern that persists after the aid is discarded.
• Scar tissue restricting movement.
• Loss of confidence in the operated limb, which often outlasts the physical healing.