How To Wrap Your Knee With An Ace Bandage

Because the menisci is a crucial office of your articulatio genus's congruency, trigger-happy information technology might atomic number 82 to instability besides as some hurting and swelling.

The expert news is that wrapping – a relatively easy treatment for these injuries – helps with all those symptoms and helps your recovery run smoother. Then, let's talk about how to wrap a knee with a torn meniscus, shall nosotros?

How to Wrap a Meniscus Injury

The 2 most common and convenient ways to do this are:

• Using an elastic cast, and
• Using orthotics like knee sleeves and braces

Let's talk about bandages showtime.

Using an rubberband bandage

It's cheap, it's everywhere, and it'southward easy to put on. For those very reasons, learning how to wrap your knee for a torn meniscus using an rubberband bandage shouldn't exist that much of a challenge, especially since you likely will merely utilise a couple of techniques: The spiral or the figure of eight.

For both, y'all'll demand:

• A 4- or half-dozen-inch elastic bandage. Ace bandages are a common brand but any make with adequate length should exist fine.
• If your bandages didn't come with locks like velcro, metal clips, or tape, you'd need those, too.

Screw wrapping technique

1. Sit on the edge of a chair so you can have your knee slightly bent to about 25 degrees. This position is what's known as your genu's resting neutral, meaning the joint prefers to be here over any other angle.
2. Get-go your wrap near 1-ii inches below your kneecap. Wrap around this expanse twice to ballast the side by side wraps. This too serves as your starting signal.
3. Continue your wraps at a uniform upwardly angle. Each wrap should overlap the previous past at to the lowest degree fifty% while maintaining the same amount of tension. Done right, all the wraps should class a spiral.
4. Lock your wraps somewhere in a higher place your knee. Apply whatsoever lock came with your purchase but if it didn't come with any or you lost them somehow, using record should practice just fine. Also, if there'southward any backlog bandage, don't wrap it dorsum downwardly. Cut it instead.

This technique is the most commonly used method in physical therapy and nearly most, if not all other medical settings for handling fresh injuries.

Theoretically, the upward sheathing of the elastic cast – from beneath your knee to above your knee – helps your veins return your blood back to your heart. This, in turn, helps regulate inflammation which tin can likewise assistance y'all recover faster.

The effigy of 8 wrapping technique

1. Have your injured knee aptitude to almost 25 degrees. Once again, this is the preferred position of your knee joint, especially when it'southward injured.
2. Wrap the bandage 1-2 inches below your kneecap (patella). Wrap it twice to set your starting and ballast point. Just so we're both on the same page, start wrapping from exterior your lower leg, move towards your shin, and then your inner leg, then circumvolve back to the outside.
3. From outside your leg, wrap upwards and in. The bandage should pass below your patella, moving in towards your lower thigh. From there, wrap around the aforementioned area, catastrophe around the outside of your thigh.
4. From at that place, wrap downwards and in. The cast should now laissez passer to a higher place your patella, moving towards the inner function of your leg, and essentially form an 8 as it crosses the angled wrap from the previous step. Wrap around the expanse until yous're dorsum around the inside section of your leg.
5. Wrap upwards and out. Now, the cast travels behind the knee, towards the outer section of your joint, and to your thigh. From there, wrap around the area until you're back around the inner section.
6. Wrap downward and out. The cast now passes backside the knee, to the outer part of the articulation, and to your leg. This is where the 2nd 8 forms. Wrap around the area about 2 more times.
7. Lock your wraps. The last couple of coils serve as your endpoints. Now, all that's left to do is brand sure the whole matter stays in place with clips, velcro, or tape.

Forth with the screw technique, the effigy of viii has since been one of the most prevalent methods for wrapping limbs. However, information technology's admittedly a little more complicated.

Basically, though, the point is to course 2 8s on either side of your knee. The tension from these 8s is what's going to give your genu joint some support, albeit minimal.

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What well-nigh knee sleeves and braces?

Substantially, sleeves and braces piece of work under the same principles that make both the spiral and effigy of 8 techniques constructive.

• Sleeves are at that place primarily to provide compression which non only improves blood flow but also gives you lot the feeling of stability. Theoretically, this is because of the tactile awareness of having something wrapped effectually your articulation.
• A brace gives y'all actual stability thanks to the metal hinges on the inner and/or outer sides of the knee. This helps prevent excessive movement on the joint which, in plow, may help prevent further damage.

Needless to say, a knee joint brace is better than the figure of 8 method when information technology comes to stabilizing your joint.

Nonetheless, I don't recommend using a brace or a sleeve during the early stage of injury considering elastic bandages are easier to put on and accept off. As such, merely donning and/or doffing these orthotics could irritate a sensitive new injury which, in turn, might disturb the healing process.

That existence said, I call back sleeves and braces are mostly better for the later stages of your recovery. The rigidity of hinged braces is especially swell when you're doing any sports-related exercise while the sleeve helps keep your joint warm which then promotes ameliorate blood flow.

Now, a lot of you might be asking:

"My tear came with a ligament tear & genu hyperextension. Should I treat it any unlike?"

This is really very common in meniscus tears. As a matter of fact, i enquiry shows how nearly 75% of ACL tears came with meniscal bug. I, for one, have had the unfortunate luck of having these injuries on ii split occasions:

1. The first time, I tore my ACL.
2. The second time, I retore the same ACL plus my menisci (and several other soft tissues).

Then, know that I'grand speaking from personal feel and from an skilful's standpoint as a physical therapist.

That being said, rehab and recovery for ACL and meniscus tears have more in common than they have differences.

So, you by and large should treat them the same way. Here are a few quick things you should know and/or expect:

• Both injuries can heal on their own but more than astringent tears may require surgery.
• With injuries that require surgery, recovery may take half-dozen months or more than but small-scale tears can heal in about 2.
• The initial phases of handling for both tears involve decision-making the swelling. This ways residuum, water ice, pinch, and height (or RICE for short). Yous may also need to utilize crutches.
• When the swelling has gone down, protocols for both involve strengthening and stretching the muscles effectually the articulation, normalizing range of move, residue exercises, and other specific exercises to become you ready to return to your sport.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I wrap my knee if I have a torn meniscus?

Yes, you should.

Pinch is a crucial part of handling during the early stages of injury and wrapping your knees with an elastic cast is perhaps the most applied and easiest fashion to do information technology.

Can you lot bend your knee with a torn meniscus?

Well, yes and no.

Depending on the type of meniscus tear you lot have, you may feel it "lock" in place when you curve or straighten information technology. This is a typical symptom of certain types of meniscus tears that may crave surgery. If this resonates with you, consult your dr. or physical therapist for options.

On the other paw, a lot of cartilage tears have mild symptoms; some have none at all. So, if your knees feel comfy and stable plenty to move, then, yes, you tin can bend your knee.

Will walking on a torn meniscus make information technology worse?

Generally, no. Walking on a torn meniscus won't make it worse. In fact, it might even aid you recover faster.

However, during the initial stages of your injury, information technology's best if yous rest your knee so it doesn't cracking too much. Ice, compression, and elevation volition aid with the swelling every bit well. If you lot did demand to travel short distances – like from the living room to the kitchen, for example – you may besides need to utilize crutches.

Conclusion

All in all, wrapping a meniscal injury comes down to either using an elastic bandage, knee sleeves, or a articulatio genus brace.

For fresh tears, I recommend an elastic bandage using the spiral or figure of 8 techniques because they're easy to practise, applied, and only apply gentle pressure around your human knee which works great for promoting apportionment without farther irritating your injury. Knee sleeves work, also, just they might exist more challenging to put on and take off.

Knee braces, on the other hand, are great for the later stages of recovery when you're doing sports-related practice or when yous're actually playing sports after your knees accept fully recovered.

Source: https://kneeforce.com/how-to-wrap-a-knee-with-a-torn-meniscus/

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