09/06/2022
Today is Tip Tuesday! Let's discuss ACL tears:
Breaking down treatment for ACL Tears:
ACL tears are more common in athletes, but they can happen to you while running on a trail or apple picking. It's really an unlucky injury and it all depends on the position of the knee when the injury occurs. Most ACL tears need surgery.
Once the swelling goes down, an orthopedic surgeon can reconstruct the knee by grafting a tendon into your knee, which becomes the New ACL ligament. Usually, they'll take a tendon from the same knee, but they can also use one from a cadaver if your tendons are unhealthy. This isn't very common for younger, healthy patients.
ACL surgery is arthroscopic, meaning the surgeon makes only tiny cuts. This means the patient can go home the same day.
The surgeon uses a tiny video camera to view the inside of the knee joint to drill tunnels in the thigh and shin bones, threads the new tendon, then screws everything into place.
After surgery, the knee will stiffen. Your doctor wants you to get back to normal quickly and highly recommends increasing your range of motion right after surgery, so your doctor will recommend physical therapy immediately. The goal is to strengthen and build up the range of motion in your knee. That's where we come in.
