Has anyone had surgery for plica syndrome? If so, how was your recovery? A friend is having surgery tomorrow to clean it up, and the initial estimates are that he could be back swimming as soon as the incision heals, running in ~2 weeks, depending on the pain, and that he needs to wait about 6 weeks to bike because that causes the most knee bending.
I’m interested to hear about anyone else’s experience with it to see if those estimates are anywhere near correct, or what he can expect.
I’ve had plica surgery on both knees (once on the right, twice on the left since the plica grew back). Assuming he’s having arthroscopic surgery, those recovery times sound about right. The first round of surgery, I was insanely careful, and stayed on crutches for 3 weeks, then slowly started putting weight on it with aid from crutches. I think total I was on crutches for 5 weeks Second surgery, I was walking with a bit of a limp after a week (though would sometimes use a crutch to aid if I was hurting), swimming after two, and running again withing 3. Round 3 on the plica surgery, I was walking about 4 days after surgery, running within 2 weeks.
I was running high school cross country at this time, so no help on biking. I’d guess the biggest limitor to biking is regaining range of motion and the different angles of force on the knee. If I were him, once I was over the initial pain, I’d start spinning on the trainer with super low resistance, and work the resistance up a little at a time over the next few weeks before heading out on the road.