Case Summary  |  Patellar subluxation followed by cartilage wear

I was playing volleyball behind a friend's house, and somehow after I jumped to hit a ball my knee dislocated when I came down. I was taken to the hospital, where an X-ray was taken that confirmed no bones were broken and that it was indeed dislocated. The knee was put back into place and I was prescribed a painkiller. Within a month, I was essentially able to walk again. I went to physical therapy and it seemed to help, although I still had some pain with extended use when I didn't wear my knee brace. A little more than a year later, I was boxing in a friend's basement when my knee went out again. This time I had no professional physical therapy but did strengthening exercises on my own to recover. About three months afterward I began to experience pain after only moderate walking or biking, so I went to an orthopedist who confirmed that the repeated injury and my relatively active lifestyle had worn away the cartilage on my knee joint. He told me this would increase my risk of dislocating again, and if the pain was particularly bad there was a surgery they could do which had a ~70% chance of helping. I opted to do more exercises on my own and not get the surgery. Today my knee is in pretty good shape. I can do most things I would like to, but sometimes when I'm sleeping or when I sit in cramped spots for too long my knee starts to hurt. I rarely wear my brace anymore and consider myself better for all intents and purposes.

went to physical therapy, where I was given some direct treatment as well as some advice on strengthening excercises. I was also instructed to wear a knee brace.