Teenager acl surgery

None personal, but a buddy's kid just had his done. 12 years old or so. Fast kid, tore it on a trampoline. Mine got his wrist plated today after breaking it in a huge endo about 10 days ago, so he's off the bike for 8 weeks. Gotta love this sport sometimes.

Get it repaired just coming off an acl tear myself and they tired to talk me into not doing it. Also know at his age they should not recommend a cadaver. 

I tore mine right after i turned 16...had it repaired by a specialist not too mong after i tore it. No issues other than it was a little tendor this past winter but it's been 19 years.

I will say get a good surgeon, like travel if you have to. My brother tore his left acl twice and right once. He had a local surgeon for the one and the guy screwed it up, a highly rated local surgeon. He ended up going to Philly to get a specialist that worked for the eagles and he's been great ever since.

Seeking medical advice on Vital is a decision

I personally had a PCL replacement done with a cadaver donor ligament after a big crash about 2 weeks before my 16th birthday. Similarly I first went to a doctor who was cautious about doing the surgery due to me not being fully grown but he recommended I see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and she had no qualms about doing the surgery and did a pretty excellent job as far as I could tell. I'm no doctor and no two knee injuries are the same but I would contact a doctor who specializes in pediatric surgeries and see their opinion. Good luck to your son its a tough thing to go through at that age. 

I tore mine at 15. Was a 75% tear. Dr. we went to gave me two options. Clean it up and wait for it to go the rest of the way or do a cadaver ligament. We opted for the cadaver. 1 pin in the femur, 1 in the lower leg. Rehab was 3 months if I remember correctly 5 days a week. (This was also 19 years ago). I've talked to a few people that I work with that have had kids go through the same injury and one thing they had me do that I don't hear of anymore is they sent me home with this big contraption that moved my leg and flexed the knee. Id sit in it for 4-5 hours a day and had to hit a certain degree of motion before I could start PT. Screws bug me when it gets really really cold but just a dull annoying pain. If anything I feel that knee is stronger than my other now. Really the only thing that will make it hurt now is long days on the concrete shop floor or long car rides where I cant stretch out. I did go get legit knee braces to ride to ease my mind. But now even with all the back pack hunting and hiking I do it doesn't really bug me. 

Fully tore both ACL’s, first at 15 and second at 17.  My daughter fully tore her ACL at 17…. She had her repair done with hamstring tendon.  My third repair was done with the patella tendon.  I’d say have it done.  Loose knee causes meniscus damage.

He doesn't HAVE to.

You should read up on it. Some articles out there about Repair vs not repair and build up with muscle. I chose not to repair mine. Will i need surgery when Im older for other damage, maybe; but might have needed those future surgeries anyway. Read as much as you can and make best decision for him and his situation. 

So how many Doctors do you have to see before you listen to their advice ? 3 sounds like a pretty reasonable number but asking for medical advice on Vital for your son is just plain stupid. 

I can only speak from experience, as I've had a similar personal injury. Late 2018 I had a right tibial plateau fracture, sprained MCL, and broken scapula. Well, that was the diagnosis then. I recovered as anyone would have normally, just took time and PT. Mind you, I was 32 at the time, so twice your son's age. It wasn't until March of last year, '23, that I found out my ACL had been torn during that same event back in 2018. Doctors then only did Xray and CT scans, no MRI back then. The MRI was ordered when I started to have bad pain in my knee, and an off balance walk. Lo' and behold, turns out I had a femoral ACL detachment-type tear. i was told that was fairly uncommon, rather than a medial tear. Anyways, after the surgery in May, my recovery has been immensely better. Mid to light pain now, but that's just what recovery entails. Had I not done the surgery, I would have developed pretty sever arthritis. The cartilage alone was getting pretty torn up due to linearly progressing instability. As far as the options my surgeon gave me, its all depending on what kind of tear it was, and if/where he was going to source the artificial ACL. Because mine was still intact on the tibial side, he only had to anchor in from the femoral side. After the surgery, I only had 4 stitches to cover the tiny incisions. Had he needed to source an artificial ACL, it would be either from the lower hamstring tendon, quad muscle, or cadaver. Most doctors though recommend against the cadaver, because technology has come a long way.

As far as medical decisions, I cannot make them for you. But, I can make an opinion. I'd be first curious about the reasoning for waiting for him to grow. Ultimately, it might promote instability if you wait, and lack of confidence in the knee for fear of tweaking it again. (Definitely don't want to experience watching my knee bend to the right on impact again, rather than bend back like normal) 

Hahaha “manifesting” a healthy knee. This is some quack shit.

https://sandersclinic.net/the-sanders-clinic/
 

Check out Dr Mark Sanders , he fixed my son’s when he was 14.

I tore mine and the meniscus around that age and they only fixed the meniscus. Tore it again two years later and they fixed both. I think the worry is putting a screw through the growth plate depending on how big the gap they see is. Not everyone will be the same. 

Agree to a few different specialist, as an adult i waited a few years resulting in torn meniscus, resulting to other damage, leading to arthritis, and 20 years later my knee replacment, unfortunately i was not a good candidate for stem cell. If your speciast okay ACL surgery, that may prevent future damage? Good look to your kid!

My wife had hers done 2 weeks after tearing MCL and ACL and partial LCL tear. She had a quad tendon graft done which is suppose to be the newest best way, it takes about 2 weeks to get quad activation back but is still the best way. Has one screw on the bottom that is supposedly going to be absorbed by the bone and the top is secured with some kind of little staple stitch thing.

Her surgeon was very local to us but happened to be an awesome one that use to do surgery for all the Texas professional sports teams. 

She's at 6 weeks now and is walking without a brace gingerly. 

I tore my meniscus and a compete tear of the the acl last summer.   I listened to what the doctor had to say,  who didn't try to influence me either way.  Also did my own research and opted to have the meniscus repaired and not the acl. 

I will admit that the first 2-3 weeks after surgery my knee was very wobbly and weak.   I was definitely second guessing my decision, but stuck with the plan of intense leg strengthening and after about 3 months I couldn't tell that there is anything wrong with my knee.  When I ride moto now I feel like I ride like I always did.