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An injury to a medial collateral ligament of the knee rarely requires surgery for a full recovery. Even complete tears will usually heal on their own. Conservative treatment approaches that use
modalities such as ice and electrical stimulation to decrease local pain and inflammation, and therapeutic exercise to restore strength and range of motion to the knee are recommended.
Compression sleeves and supportive braces also can provide extra stability while protecting the healing ligament from harmful stresses.
Soft-tissue mobilization techniques and cross-friction massage can reduce edema and speed recovery of the injured tissue. They can
both be performed manually or with instruments.
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The Graston Technique is a form of manual therapy that uses patented stainless steel instruments to restore soft tissue motion. In
studies conducted on rats, the Graston Technique accelerated early ligament healing by stimulating fibroblastic activity. This resulted in the increased production of collagen fibers.
The procedure was shown to improve the biomechanical properties of ligament healing. A treated ligament was found to be stronger
and stiffer than an untreated one. Exercise also has been shown to improve collagen synthesis and the tensile strength of the healed medial collateral ligament compared with immobilization.
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