Mechanical therapy for loss of knee flexion

We hypothesized that adding home mechanical therapy to traditional physical therapy by a physical therapist would significantly reduce the need for surgical management of loss of knee flexion after surgery or injury. From 1990 to 1999, we followed up on 34 patients who added home mechanical therapy after failure of physical therapy alone. Thirty-one (91.2%) of these patients regained functional flexion (defined as flexion to 115 degrees) after 6.7 weeks. After surgery, these patients had waited a mean of 23.6 weeks before starting home mechanical therapy. Over the course of this therapy, mean knee flexion progressed from 70.8 degrees to 130.6 degrees. Only 2 patients in this study required surgical manipulation. We conclude that a home mechanical therapy program will reduce the need for surgical management of loss of knee flexion.