Anyone else ruptured their ACL? Care to share your experiences?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Made little tears in both my ACLs all throughout my teenage and young adult years. Finally totally ruptured my right ACL when I was in my late 30s. My doctor told me I was fat so no surgery for me, just a big ole brace for the rest of my life.

I don’t wear the brace. Both knees are shot. I fall down at least 3 times a year. My new ortho guy says surgery is an option but it will take 3 months of very intense rehab (including a stint in a re-hab hospital hooked up to a machine that will manually move my leg for hours each day) and on-going re-hab for a year.

So now I have to figure out if going up and down stairs without pain and the constant threat of falling down and seriously injuring myself now that I’m an old lady outweighs the horrific surgery.

Still opting for no knives to the knee.

22

I injured my left knee doing gymnastics in 1992. I had an inconclusive MRI (I think I was in too much pain to hold still long enough for a clear image). During surgery, my orthopedist diagnosed a complete tear of the ACL, a substantial tear of the lateral meniscus, and a minor tear of the medial meniscus. As I was unconscious at decision-making time, he and my parents decided against rebuilding the ACL. He did clear out the chunks of cartilage floating around in there and sew up one meniscus. Apparently he hadn’t noticed that I was an athlete, as it came as a surprise to him at the two week follow up when I asked how soon I could go begin working out.

Anyway, recovery for the repaired meniscus was 6 weeks of complete non-weight bearing crutches. I also spent a lot of time in the training room on campus (I was in college at the time). It sucked.

Long term, I really wish I had had the surgery. My knee slides around sometimes in a disgusting fashion. I can do some athletic things with no problem: walking is fine, yoga is good, martial arts are only occasionally worrisome, rock climbing is a breeze. Running is a complete no-go. I wouldn’t try tennis or skiing or soccer or basketball, but fortunately those are things that don’t much appeal to me anyway! I also find the sorts of weight machine exercises that are supposed to strengthen quads to be painful, unfortunately.

Good luck!

23

Last march I was walking along in ski boots, slipped and blew my ACL out completely and tore the medial meniscus, which really hurt.

Prior to that I had lived with a grade 2 partial tear in my ACL for about 8 years, the initial tear was from playing squash, I did not have surgery as my travel schedule would not allow it, but with a neoprene/metal knee brace I skied about 35 days a year for 4 years prior to the final tear.

The docs did surgery 6 weeks after the total tear, the delay was in order to let the swelling go down, fortunately the town where I live is the HQ for the US ski team and the local hospital has some very very good knee doctors.

Surgery was in and out in a day. They took a bit off the hamstring and wove that in as a replacement ACL. They also gave a nerve block that lasted a few days, if offered , take it.
I then spent a week lying on the sofa with my leg locked, the brace had a cooling pad installed which was great. I started a thread here asking for ways to pass the time when lying down, however the surgery made me pretty miserable and the pain killers basically put me to sleep for a week.

The 2nd week they took the brace off and adjusted it for some movement and got me up on crutches. So I would crutch around with the brace on, but when stationary take it off and keep the cooling pad on it.

I also started physio in week two. This was mostly trying to get the muscles to fire again, apparently the surgery knocks the nerves out of action and a lot of bending trying to get range of motion back. Did a few mile walks on crutches, a week of lying down is not good for the head.

Week three I had sufficient range to get on the stationary bike, and that was that for the next few months, physio for range of motion, building up muscle mass and getting the muscles firing properly. After two months I was allowed to run in a straight line, only on flat surfaces and bike on roads, nothing that would incur any chance of twisting. By October I was cleared for all skiing and mountain biking. Knee has been rock solid for 40 days of skiing and I now realize how wobbly my knee was with the partial tear.

Complications -
I developed gout in my big toe after a week, that actually kept me more awake than the surgery. It was effing painful. I also didn’t react well to the pain medication after a week (Percocet) so I got off that and with doctors approval nailed vast amounts of ibuprofen, which also helped with the gout.
The knew was also very swollen which needed a drain. The docs were not sure if it was related to the gout they checked for crystals but did not see anything. Anyway it has not reoccurred, possibly related to bad circulation in the toe due to lack of activity and swelling .

Advice -
Do whatever you can to build leg strength now prior to surgery. I sat on my ass feeling sorry for myself for 6 weeks (ok the torn meniscus didn’t help as that was the bit that hurt), that, combined with the week of the leg locked still led to a lot of muscle mass loss.

Watch the pain medications, get off them asap and onto ibuprofen or whatever suits you body. (my reaction was if I had a slight increase in pain, say banged my toe I would go into uncontrollable shivers for 5 minutes) .

As soon as you can start physio and really keep up on the home exercises for triggering the muscles and range of movement, then get on the stationary bike.

Move to a ski town to get the best doctors for knee repair :wink:
good luck
PCM

24

I don’t know if surgery would have prevented the second tear, but I suspect it might have (emphasis on suspect), since the second time happened just like the first–pivoting on my right leg just as I put my weight on it. I haven’t seen you mention your age, but I assume you’re younger than 40 when I first tore mine. That might be a consideration, but so is the time lapse since your injury, I guess. Anyway, I’m just glad it’s you who has to make the decision and not me.:slight_smile:

25

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I went to see the consultant yesterday to get a confirmed diagnosis, and here’s the butcher’s bill:

ACL - completely torn. It’s hanging off my tibia like a limp flag rather than attaching to my humerus, as it’s meant to
MCL - partial tear, relatively severe
LCL - partial tear, not very severe
Meniscus cartilege - partial tear, not very severe
Bone bruising to the tibia (this is basically a sort of non-splintering fracture, rather than a bruise in the conventional sense)
Fluid oedema in the knee joint

So the options are basically a) try to rehabilitate the knee by physiotherapy or b) have reconstructive surgery. His recommendation is the first option, which leaves the door open for surgery later if required. Apparently about 2/3 of people who go down this route can return to a fully active lifestyle, including sports involving bending and twisting the knee. Possibly 4-6 months of rehab before that point.

I’m going to ponder for a new days, but my inclination is to not have my knee sliced open if possible.

At the moment, he wants me to wear a knee brace that stops the knee bending sideways, to allow the MCL, meniscus and bone bruising to heal. That will take about 6-8 weeks. I think I might also get a second opinion on whether surgery makes sense at this point, but to be honest, if there’s a non-surgical option that doesn’t reduce the chance of surgical success later on, I don’t see why I wouldn’t take that one.

26

You’re going to want to get that cartilage trimmed if nothing else- it can catch and lock your knee up and be generally annoying.

The ACL can to some extent, be compensated for by working on your quad and hamstring muscles.

I don’t think they actually surgically repair torn MCLs anymore- or that’s what I’ve heard in the 24 years since they did repair mine.

27

I did mine back in 1988 playing volleyball. After surgery and rehab I took a year off of volleyball and picked up cycling. Had a custom knee brace made and started volleyball again. Now 25 years on I don’t play volleyball but cycle some and walk around 5 miles/day with no bother.

28

That was discussed - he said the tear is small enough that surgery would not be justified. It’s not a large injury, and the knee brace I’m going to get should help with the healing.

29

Dervorin, were the bindings one or two years old, and were their DIN settings appropriate for your weight and ability?

30

I tore out my ACL and PCL, along with some meniscus, in 1979.

In 1982 I had some of the early orthoscopic surgery to repair the meniscus.

Around 1987 I had ACL replacement surgery that was mostly orthoscopic. That tore out not long after recovery. The doctor told me it “didn’t take.”

Tried again in 1998 or so and the doc explained that both the ACL and PCL were gone. They were both pretty much completely absorbed at that point. He managed to rebuild both (cadaver ligaments I think) around the previous work. That operation was a success, except he had to install the new ACL slightly off, because of the holes from the first operation. So I never got 100% flexion back and the shape of my knee is different. About 4 weeks recovery plus a few months of being careful. My knees aren’t perfect now but the “fixed” knee is way better than my “good” knee.

My advice is to look for a doctor who works on athletes. Those patients expect results.

31

Though all of us who have had this injury have chimed in, the proper treatment for this kind of injury can best be determined by a good orthopedist, not by asking us. I urge the OP again to visit a sports orthopedist. My doc said not to do surgery and so far that has proved a good approach.

32

The skis were rented, so I can’t comment on their age, but they did adjust them for my age and ability - at least to the best of my knowledge. They certainly asked how much I weighed, and I made sure they knew I was a complete beginner. I had have a couple of other falls where the bindings did pop out and I was uninjured, so I think I can safely say they knew what they were doing.

Sorry, I should have made it clear - “he” who diagnosed me and gave me the advice is a sports orthopedist. I’m getting proper medical attention - had an MRI in conjunction with this course of investigation, all at a specialised sports and orthopedics treatment centre. I also have the option to have surgery at the same facility if required. Believe me, I’m taking this seriously. :slight_smile:

I was looking for sharing of stories partly to know how much impact this has had on people, rather than medical advice.

33

I healed quickly without surgery and am hardly even aware that I tore it.

34

I’m glad to hear that it is actually possible - I was given to understand that spontaneous healing of ACL injuries was relatively rare. I can hold out hope, though! Come on, little blood-starved ligament cells! Heal thyself!

35

Well, in my case it may not have been a complete tear.

36

One thing my doctor told me was the 2-3month period after surgery was the time most people who were going to break the repair job , would break it.
After surgery the replacement ACL is pretty rock solid ( well mine was a bit of my hamstring) but he muscles are weak so people are naturally taking things easy post surgery.
The replacement ACL weakens as, what little blood supply the ACL has, has not had time to redevelop. The muscles are strengthening , to the point the patient thinks all is good after few months, however the replacement ACL is at its weakest. Patient goes out twist leg doing something and breaks the ACL again.
The ACl apparently can take the full 6moths to get a blood supply back, and 9 to be build back up again.

Alt of serious athletes can get going sooner as they just have massive amounts of support from all the muscles in the knee and leg.

On braces my doc was very much against using them prior to surgery, his thoughts were, it isn’t going to get any worse if you twist I again so all you are doing is not exercising the leg and so loosing muscle mass.
Post surgery he had two opinions. One - get out of the brace ASAP and work the leg. Two, everyone in this town is stupid and think they can climb , mountain bike and trail run two months after surgery , so he recommends them to keep a brace on to remind them it isn’t fixed yet,

Obviously all in my humble experience.

To get the operation not. I clearly wanted t get back skiing and trail running so it was a o brainer. The doc said the torn meniscus nee to be fixed s that is what was causing the pain, that was a simple operation. The ACL could have been delayed, he saw no issues doing ACL repair many years after the tear, a strong knee/leg can compensate for a lot. The issues were, with sustained activity, much later in life knee pain and arthritis can be an issue as the knee will have been squirming around grinding in ways it is not supposed to. That would be big problems later in life when the body is less capable of handling and recovering from surgery.