Muscle Wasting Occurs Quickly

Check out the difference in size.

Have a look at my patient's legs in the picture above. See the difference in size? Can you guess how quickly it happened?

My patient fell while skiing in Japan and the doctor there said she tore her medial collateral ligament (MCL). She was prescribed crutches, a huge brace and came back in a wheelchair.

There was definite swelling around her knee and I taped it to reduce the swelling of course and promptly taught her how to walk without the crutches and wheelchair.

2 days. that's how quickly the muscle atrophy took place.

Later an MRI confirmed she tore her MCL as well as her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) as well.