Medial Tibial Plateau Fracture: Rehabilitation with The Deep Oscillation Personal Pro

By Nicki O’Clarey - Nicki sustained a fracture to her medial tibial plateau in a surfing accident in July 2022; healing and scar management were enhanced with self applied, Deep Oscillation Therapy

Background – I am a therapist trained in various movement practices, Structural Integration and Scar Tissue therapy and am also a registered Nutritional Therapist. I like to consider the body from a multi-systems perspective and therefore try to combine all my modalities when working with people to help restore movement or improve their health. So it was both frustrating and fascinating when I sustained a fracture to my medial tibial plateau in a surfing accident at the beginning of July this year. Unfortunately, the fracture needed plating and pinning, but at least I now had my very own fresh scar to work on and a number of weeks to experiment with new tools and ponder my rehab plan.

Treatment Plan 

I knew that indirect work around an immature scar in the early days post op could lead to a better functional outcome. But I hadn’t appreciated how much the natural swelling response is able to switch off muscle fibres and inhibit muscle action, which, then causes atrophy in a matter of just a few days. This is where the deep oscillation device came into its own; using it for just 15 mins a day enabled me to shift the swelling away from my foot and upwards and prevent it accumulating day on day. This meant I could retain more movement at the ankle and a little at the knee joint.

At 3 weeks post-op I used the oedema program and massaged along the lymph channels of the upper and then lower leg following a typical MLM sequence. The 'Fibrosis' program seemed good at tackling swelling which was more prominent in the anterior tibial compartment and after 5 weeks I began to use the 'Osteosynthesis' program around the tibial plateau as sensitivity permitted.  This was useful to tackle swelling which accumulated in the popliteal area.

Results: At my 6-week check-up it was remarked upon how good my scar was looking (not sure how to interpret that but any complement is a positive right?) and how the swelling seemed to be well managed. From my perspective, I felt the deep oscillation was able to lift the fascia and get the fluid moving in a way that I could not have done with manual therapy techniques.

Overall Observations.

I found the device easy to use, once I had figured out how to select and navigate the menus with the multi-purpose dial. The vibratory nature of the device seemed to induce a deep ‘fuzzy’ warmth into my calf muscles which was both relaxing and relieved the feeling of tightness.

Interestingly, my skin felt too sensitive to work on even with the lightest of touch in the early days, but the head of the oscillation device felt didn’t seem to evoke the same sensitivity – perhaps because it reduced proprioception overload?  I am grateful to Emma Holly from Restore Therapy for the loan of this device and think it’s a valuable tool to facilitate early injury rehabilitation both in terms of swelling management and the potential to keep things moving if only in a small way – it all helps.

Nicki O’Clarey