Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
Come to the Steadman Clinic if you want it done right.
Didn't have surgery and had some stability issues for probably 6 months and my knee kindof popped out of place in my sleep on the odd occasion for about a year.
But yeah no issues as yet to this day and I've been bloody active with stuff like martial arts that obviously involves a lot of pivoting and twisting on one leg etc. It never bothers me to the point of never thinking about it...on occasion I wonder if it will come back to haunt me one day because a torn ACL is supposed to be serious business, but I didnt do anything except just allow time.
Doc at the time did give an option of an op if it continued to give issues so I guess it can have varying degrees of damage, but yeah an op never eventuated.
imo . its as easy as this, to weather you should or should nt get it fixed .
do you have good meniscus to begin with .if you dont ,getting your acl fixed could hurry up you needing a replacement knee down the road .
if you have good meniscus ,i would prob say to you you should get it done .but only if you can get it done right away . if you cant . id do a mad amount of physio on it and see what it is like in 6 months .you might be surprised how good you can get it . but you do have to put in a serious amount of muscle building around the knee. ie more work than even the normal rehab for an acl .
there are loads of factors you should look at.
but yes you can get really good stability without an acl it will take you 6 months though .
cause you are 40 id be making sure your meniscus is good before id get it,
The Shop
Like the idea of not having a graft harvested from me but then again, don't like the idea I could get some sort of disease ('s), cancer etc from a cadaver. Even though the odds are low....
i remember the nurse telling me , the doctor was kind of famous for fixing all the top soccer stars in europe . and how he got so good was because he worked in Belfast in the 80 s .when the IRA were knee caping loads of people . so he had to come up with new techniques for fixing knees
”I quit doing Patella grafts in the 90’s, I respect the Patella tendon too much to weaken it, and I could pay for my house, cars, and send my kids to college for all
The Cadaver re-do’s I’ve done”. So I ask about why so many do the Patella graft...”Because that’s what they know.”
Also I think it depends somewhat on what the particular surgeon specialises in or has a preference for.
MDMCG please support your reference of an allograft only having 75% of the strength? I'm curious of current research supporting that statement. I remember reading several articles stating after the first few months the allograft tensile strength is actually as strong as an autograft.
Wasn't Steadman himself mainly using cadaver grafts for ACL repairs before he retired? I thought that's what my wife stated when she did her residency there.
My left knee was done 3 years ago with a cadaver graft. My right knee 15 years ago with the hamstring graft. My hamstring is weaker on my right knee where the graft was taken from. Not an issue but it is noticeable when lifting weights. Other than that I have no issues with the hamstring graft acl repair. At the time I choose the hamstring graft because of research regarding arthritis with the patella graft.
The left knee with the cadaver graft has no issues. Yes, the sterilization procedures have gotten a lot better resulting in less failures. This was a big decision in choosing a cadaver. Also, my age played a huge factor in deciding...I was 40 at the time of surgery.
Dirtbikekid, using a autograft is creating a NEW injury to fix an existing one. Discuss with your DR and decide with them what your best option is. Most DR's have their go to graft and will recommend that one. If you're not comfortable or they're not taking the time to answer all your questions, get a second opinion.
CJMX, do you recall how much more pain and rehab was needed between your two knees using the different grafts?
Allografts use to be sterilized with ethyl oxide, which weakened the graft. This is no longer used. Now they use gamma radiation.
The only difference in pain was after the surgery. The allograft surgery they used a nerve block which was great. You don't feel anything for 12 hours or so. Definitely request it! Rehab was simpler with the cadaver knee because I knew what to expect and my knee was a lot better going into the surgery. I waited a while for surgery, strengthening the knee and getting back full range of motion. It was a lot easier for me to get the range of motion back before surgery than after.
1. Obviously, wearing a brace is important but does anyone have any recommendations on how to avoid knee injuries while riding?
2. Do you think the Asterisk brace with the tether (attaching the boot to the brace) adds significant protection from rotational injuries over other braces? What's you favorite brace?
3. What percentage of amateur racers do you think get these types of knee injuries we're talking about?
Pit Row
Dean Wilson had his 3rd ACL surgery earlier this summer and he chose the cadaver graft for his latest surgery and he was back on the bike in 4-5 months.
While you have the trifecta, in my case I had a very slight torn meniscus and ruptured ACL. The surgery itself was fast and actually painless. I had a nerve block during surgery and went back the next day for another 24 hour block. After 48 hours and the nerve block wearing off I still encountered a pain level of zero and only took the meds for the first 72 hours.
Regarding recovery: The hardest part of recovery is not being able to do your normal hobbies for such a long duration of 6 months. Overall the surgery and recovery was much easier and painless than expected.
- On the 3 day I was already applying pressure while hobbling around as encouraged by the doctor.
- 7-10 days walking around with a good limp
- 4 weeks: Walking mostly normal
- 6-8 weeks fully normal walk (Fully normal household activities return)
- 12 weeks: Able to jog lightly but not with any grace
-16-18 weeks: My normal jogging stride has returned and I can go 2-3 miles. Running is not an option yet.
- +18 weeks: We'll see
I can't stress enough how how critical rehab and leg weight training is. As a hyper active person, early on I assumed that my knee would return to full strength through my normal daily routine as most injuries have heeled for me in the past. It became very clear after 10-14 weeks how weak my knee was compared to my good leg and that I would have to get much more serious and committed. It's not the ACL that feels weak, it's all the muscles around the knee from surgery that require committed rehab. Since the 12ish week mark I started rehabbing my knee every day at home, in the gym or at PT. Since then the improvement is significant and I can see very measurable increases in leg strength, but it's also obvious that I will have to continue to rehab hard every day in order to get back on the bike at 6 months, and even then I highly doubt it will be anywhere near 100% strong.
Good luck, it's not that bad and IMO necessary if you want to live an active lifestyle
Before you make your final decision take note.
I have torn my acl in my left knee 4 times.
3 surgeries. First surgery in Frisco tx patella, rehab etc.
Injured again shortly after 2nd surgery hamstring, rehab began riding.
Reinjured 8 months later.
3rd surgery combination right leg patella along with right hamstring wound together tight. Limited problems for 7 years and 3 weeks ago destroyed again. Surgery is a quick fix, will not ever be right physically and mentally. If you are turning pro fix it. If not rehab and strengthen it, will work fine. If I had it all to do over again would not have fixed the first time and would have just rehabed it.
That is my course of action now.
That being said knees are definitely a case by case thing everybody's body heals differently. Good luck! It's a shitty surgery...
There are always stories of the lucky few, who's knees were so naturally strong that they could function and ride without an ACL. They are the lucky ones. 90% of people who do not get it repaired go on to regret it. Don't be in the 90% because you think you might be in the 10%.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a7j2tz6u3aikpq/Graft-Selection-in-ACL-Surger…
If you have a straightforward ACL tear, your repair options are pretty straightforward (PTG, Hamstring, Cadaver), and the pluses and minuses are easy to evaluate. Unless you are an idiot, you really do not need a Doc to determine what is best for you. Read the studies, learn the lingo, determine what is best for you. THEN go find the doc that is the best available to your at doing THAT procedure. This is backwards from what most people do.
Most people do not realize that when they select a Doc, they are selecting a procedure...they just do not know it at that time. The Doc you choose already has his way of doing things, and he is going to talk you into his way. That is the way it works.
If you are OK with Cadaver...get a Doc who does those a LOT. If you want to go PTG...get a guy who does a LOT of PTGs. This is absolutely critical with PTGs, as they take more skill and experience due to the mechanics of bone plug seating and graft length in the tunnel.
Personally, the downsides of a PTG were not downsides to me (more pain...eh...who cares. Kneeling pain...eh...I do not lay tile or roofing... Tough rehab....eh....I can do it.) but the plusses were a huge deal. To me...the choice was obvious...B2B PTG. You may have different priorities.
Once I determined I wanted a PTG BTB graft, all that was left was to find a doc that had done a LOT of them (at the time I had my knee done...he had performed over 3000 BTB PT Autografts...) and he was damned good at them. I also had the donor material taken from the opposite side, which really helps with re-hab by spreading our the surgical trauma.
I never had it fixed, It has caused me a few problems over the years with stability particularly if I plant my foot & twist my knee it can partially come out of joint & be painful.
You have to alter your ways of doing things, stance, twisting etc, however on the bike was pretty good once my muscles built up, I raced motocross for years after only stopped doing Vets in 2010 wearing Pod knee braces & when correctly fitted they worked wonders, Thankfully I still have no pain in my knee or arthritis symptom's aged 52 now.
Ime not going to have it fixed any time soon unless I have to.
So @dirtbikekid46 what did you end up doing? How is the knee?
Post a reply to: Torn ACL - to repair or not?