Another ACL Thread...

Yet another ACL discussion. I tore my 1st ACL and had bone bruising and some minor cartilage damage in my left knee a year and a half ago, and had reconstructive surgery. My doctor opted to use a graft not widely used: the quadricep tendon graft. I have no problems with my left knee now and have been riding on it all summer. However, it took about 10 mos for my quadricep to feel completely normal (even though my knee felt fine), I am a very active person and did all of my rehab. The reason this method was chosen for me is I have some tendonitis in my patellar tendons, and my doctor was of the opinion that the hamstring is instrumental in supporting the knee, and I’m in my 20’s so he thought my own ligaments would be stronger than a cadavers’, therefore he chose the quadricep. He also believed that this is one of the stronger grafts.

Well I went in for what I thought was a minor sprain yesterday on my other knee. I have very little pain and virtually no swelling in my knee, and I was really just making sure that everything was O.K. I’d been on a bike the day after I twisted it, and got full ROM. It was a little sore, but nothing like with my first knee. To my surprise after he looked at it, he said he thought it was ACL. I have to say nothing makes me more upset than to think about going through it all again. I’m already thinking ahead as to what method I should use this time around. I have my MRI on Thursday.

I’ve read that women are 8X more likely to tear ACL’s. I’ve also been reading that specific exercises to emphasize proper body position, etc. can be learned to prevent future injuries. Do any of you have any experience with this? I have to say that I’m a little hesitant to get back on the water. What are the chances of tearing a bionic ACL?? Are they the same as a good knee??

Also here’s the clip that caused the injury…. my 4th attempt at a backroll. I think it just got in a twisted position on the landing.

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=11950

you prolly would've landed it if the handle was in your hand.

sorry to hear of your injury. take care and hope for a quick and complete recovery.

i just had mine reconstructed with a hamstring graft. Aparrently it is just as strong as the orginal acl and you can get into a more agressive rehab program that way.
Pateller is supposed to be stronger but longer recovery time
I have never heard of a quad graft but i guess that was the only option. My hamstring is 75% after two and half months.
The doc says my knee will be the same if not better than it was before.
With the way i tore mine it was sorta a freak thing, in eight yrs of riding it was the only time it had happened. As far as exercises, stetching and haveing good leg strenght is supposed to help.

Hope the recovery goes well and you can come back and hit that backroll!

Women are much more susceptible to ACL tear and there's not a whole lot you can do to prevent the injury from happening.
Why?? Because we were designed to have babies and because of that ,the shape & width of our pelvis are wider. Which has a direct effect on the angle of the knee ( called a Q angle), which cause more stress on the ACL when being active.
At least that's the answer we got in Applied Anatomy and Physiology 20 yrs ago.....

I'm working on a knee surgery/injury rehab article at the moment, hopefully I'll have it done in a week, I can e-mail you some of my research if you'd like, just shoot me an e-mail @ wakegurl17@aol.com

Hey Tammy,
I first injured my left knee wakeboarding and about a month later finished the job with an ACL tear while playing soccer. I had a hamstring graph as well. It took me a while to get back into sports again, but not 10 months. Maybe you can go back and have an ACL brace made by Donjoy for your repaired knee and insist on one for your newly injured knee. I know of at least one rider on this board who wears braces on both knees (J Jakober)!!!

Good luck and quick healing!

I was back into all sports at 5-6 mos, however, still noticed some uncomfortableness when returning. I also have the Donjoy for my left knee and have been really happy with it. I'm not sure if the Donjoy is better than the CTI - I've seen lots of mentions of that brace on WW so I plan to ask my Dr. what his opinions are.

Bess I'd love to see your research, I sent you an email.

I had full ACL recon done on my left knee using the cadaver graft. So far it has been very good. I was wakesurfing after 6 weeks, played golf at 9, wakeskated at 12 (just skate tricks, no wake to wake airs), and will probably get on the board in a month or so. I've had great success with working it out and PT.

From all the horror stories i've heard, its not that bad. The worst is dealing with my horrible insurance.

Anyway, stay up.

BTW, i have the CTI, and its perfect.

(Message edited by cramey on September 22, 2004)