Everyone I see in the office just about receives some form of physical therapy. Almost everybody with knee pain can benefit from physical therapy whether we continue on the conservative course non-operatively or even progress to operative management.
Physical therapy helps patients first re-establish knee motion. Once the knee motion has been re-established to be their symmetric fold and knee motion and strengthening can help with their progress. Once they have worked on knee motion and strengthening then further things such as activities of balance can be added in.