87: Reboot: How to Rehab from ACL Surgery with Dr. Candace Cox (Part 1)

The Sports Docs Podcast

On today’s episode we’re rebooting our most popular episode of all time which focuses on rehabilitation of ACL surgery with Candace Townley Cox, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and body movement expert at Evolution Physical Therapy. Today’s discussion will center around tips and tricks to optimize outcomes and some common pitfalls that may hold patients back from a full recovery.
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We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on the surgical treatment of knee cartilage disease. As always, links to all of the papers that we discuss on this show can be found on our podcast website.
The first article is a level 3 case-control study published in the October 2020 issue of OJSM, titled Anterior Knee Pain After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. Gustavo Constantino de Campos and his team in Sao Paulo, Brazil retrospectively reviewed the records of 438 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction. Anterior knee pain was reported in 6.2% of cases. Patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with a patellar tendon autograft were 3.4 times more likely to experience anterior knee pain. Also, patients who experienced an extension deficit in the post-op period were also more likely to experience anterior knee pain, with an odds-ratio of 5.3. The authors fund that anterior knee pain was not correlated with patient sex, age or surgical technique.
We are joined today by Dr. Candace Townley Cox. Candace is a Colorado native who received her Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Following undergrad Candace returned to Colorado as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer at Regis University in Denver. There, she earned her Master’s degree in Sports Performance while working specifically with the Women’s Volleyball and Softball teams. Candace continued her education at Regis University earning her Doctorate of Physical Therapy. Since graduating Candace has spent countless hours in Sport Science Labs assessing movement quality, efficiency, as well as bone and muscle performance. As a movement expert, she is able to address the body’s impairments both from a table assessment and from functional movement assessments.