ACL

Did you see the freestyle arielist who blew her knee out at the Olympics?

<br><br>When asked if her screams were more from pain or anguish, she answered anguish. Although that last scream where the ski edge of her bad leg caught looked (and sounded) pretty painful.<br><br>Last Friday at Solitude,Utah I managed to dislocate my patella (self diagnosis). My initial thoughts were not of pain, or how was I going to get down the hill, or even could I get my kneecap back on, no. My thought was, "what a waste of fifty bucks for a half day of snowboarding."<br><br>Anyway good luck with your surgery and recovery. And here's to hoping I'm not in the same boat.<br>

Jason,<br>We've never met, but I've followed your exploits here on this forum. I have worked in surgery for almost 20 years now and and have assisted on hundreds of ACL reconstructions. You may already know this but there is a difference between reconstruction and repair. Reconstruction involves debriding your native ACL and replacing with part of your patella tendon or one or two hamstring tendons. Repair involves reinserting your damaged ACL and sometimes augmenting with a hamsting graft. ACL repair is not a very common procedure for a variety of reasons. Reconstruction using your patella tendon can cause pain when kneeling, because of the defect in your patella and tibia. There is also a small risk of patella fracture(think Jerry Rice). Return to activity is usually faster. Hamstring tendon reconstruction and harvesting will be performed through a single incision. You will probably lose a little strength in your hamstrings, most people won't notice it. Tenderness in the hamstring area is sometimes more persistent. Rehab for hamstring reconstruction somtimes takes longer. The graft is usually larger using hamstrings and studies show that the result is usually stronger and more rigid. Using a donor tendon, patella or achilles, provides a quick return to activity and less graft site complications. While very safe, allograft(cadaver) tendons do run a higher risk of infection, they are not sterilized because they are fresh fozen. The quality of tissue in the donor graft cannot be assured, ie. bone density, tissue cross section etc. Getting this surgery sooner than later will not only save continuing damage to your menisci, more importantly it will prevet new or continuing irreparable damage to your articular cartilage(bearing surfaces). I felt compelled to post after reading this thread. Most doctors will only give you one option and sometimes will paint a rosy picture of their method over the alternatives. I feel this is because they are uncomfortable talking about techniques in which they were not trained, and full disclosure could result in the potential loss of a customer, yes that's right customer. My two cents.<br>Aaron

Jason,<br><br>Just tore my the ACL in my right knee last Friday at Crystal...no additional damage. I'm having surgery in 2 weeks which will give me the full 9 months required to the graft to fully heal/set before I start skiing again. There are quite a few great surgeons in Seattle (I'm using Scott Hormel). Pick one, meet with him and go from there. Do some research on the method used (i.e. hamstring tendon, patellar tendon or cadavor tendon), as I would not agree with some of the comments in this string. I'm going with the hamstring tendon as it most closely replicates the ACL, there is virtually no impact on the hamstring, it does not undermine the integrity of the patella, the graft is now just as good as the patella, and the surgery is less invasive than the patella. I would stay away from the cadavor tendon as the graft is more prone to failure and there is risk of infection/disease. The key to a successful recovery is PT and time. If you want to ski next season (and not blow it out again), you may want to consider biting the bullet and getting surgery very soon. See you at PT!