ACL problems

[1yeldud1]

How long a recovery period has anyone had for a ACL repair problem. Ours is a slight "pop" when the knee is flexed. Was wondering as we are havning surgery in 2 weeks and would like to know what time frame it will take for full - runnig speed recovery ???? Thanks

[C-townvault]

I dont' have the slightest idea how long a full recover will take. Many of my classmates have undergone acl surgery. Some seem as if nothing happened, others not so well.

Best of luck to your son during the surgery and afterwards in recovery.

The Ohio vaulter from the 04' indy streetvault

[1yeldud1]

Thanks for the comment. I'll let Brian know you sent a message. We have had several good laughes about the "experiences" in the llama barn. Tell your friend "hey". Keep us informed as to your progress and we will do likewise !!! good luck vaulting.

[rabbit1]

You will probably have a patella tendon autograft. Nine days on crutches, straight ahead jogging in about 3 months, full sports at about 6 months. Even then you will have a little lingering quad atrophy on the surgical leg. By the way, you may not need a cruciate ligament to straight-line run as in vaulting unless you are so loose you buckle just walking around. Good luck

[indestructo]

I agree with rabbit. I had a complete tear of my acl, partial tear of the MCL and also tore both meniscus in the knee. They cleared out some of the cartilage and the ligament, and I was good to go in 6 weeks. They cleared me for straight line running only, and the 6 week time frame really pushed the limits. After having full ACL reconstruction (they actually harvested an acl from a cadaver for my surgery), my rehab was a little quicker then what rabbit mentioned, but not much.

[vaultguru6]

Scott Slover jumped for about 8 years with no ACL. I think he finally got it fixed like 2 years ago. But all through college and a couple years post collegiate he jumped on a torn ACL. AS long as the runway didn't turn he was good to go.

[dubjones]

Depending on your doc you might want to ask about harvesting the semitendinosis (in hamstring). Leaves your platela alone and from what I was told gets you back up and "running" a little quicker due to less atrophy in the quad. Since then I have had no hamstring trouble in that leg. Knee is fine, works great. I was leary of the cadaver method. From what I understand there is a chance your body might reject the replacement.

Had mine done about 5 years ago, jogging at about 4 weeks, jumped at about 41/2-5 months, and at about 6 1/2 months was back into decent running shape and looking at big bars again. I was really lucky, dating a PTA at the time so I nearly lived at the clinic/gym.
A good surgeon helps but therapy is a big part. Gaining range of motion and strength quickly is key. Follwing your intitial recovery (crutches) it is all work. The faster you can get back to training the better.
Good Luck
Dub

[Spencer Chang, MD]

The nice thing about ACL reconstructions are that of all of the surgeries we do, these tend to do pretty well. In most hands, the success rate is greater than 90%.

For a straight ahead athlete who doesn't do much cutting, pivoting, change of direction stuff, an allograft (cadaver) bone patellar tendon graft is a nice choice. The graft does take longer to mature, and so my preference for return to full activity is to wait for 9 months minimum.

For athletes who need to do a lot of pivoting, cutting, and change of direction, I tend to use an autograft bone patellar tendon bone graft (from yourself). The downside about an autograft is that there is much more initial pain, the rehab seems to go slower at first, and the patellar tendon and patella are weaker initially and there is a risk of fracture (e.g. Jerry Rice). The upside is return to sports in 5 - 6 months.

In either case, I believe the fixation for bone patellar tendon type grafts are better than hamstrings as hamstrings are soft-tissue fixation to bone rather than bone to bone. Studies have shown that this takes longer, and in a study that I participated in and in other studies, the hamstrings sometimes loosened over time. Although never proven, I cannot imagine that if you take the two medial hamstrings away from a sprinting type of athlete, that there will not be some loss of potential speed or power.

I would be careful about considering an accelerated rehab protocol for a hamstring or allograft bone patellar tendon bone.

Generally, we'll have our patients do straight ahead jogging at 3 months. The graft itself is at it's weakest during the 6 wk - 3 month period. You don't want to stress it too much.

While I was training in Miami, we generally used an autograft bone patellar tendon graft for the University of Miami football players. We'd often use an allograft for track athletes.

Aloha,

Spencer Chang, MD
Fellowship Trained in Sports Medicine
at the UHZ Sports Medicine Institute
Orthopaedic Surgery
Medical Advisor USATF Pole Vault Development

[1yeldud1]

Well the surgery is done !!!!!! Everything went fine. Replaced damaged tendon with patella tendon, used plate, 7 screws, and bone graphs to correct femur damage. Cross your fingers - were waiting for the healing process to begin. Thanks for the thoughts and comments they helped.