snapped acl
- Thread starter lachie.g
- Start date
JoshyC
Likes Dirt
hey dude, tough break. Did my acl 2 years ago now. Depends on whether you have a reco and also your surgeon as to when you can progress onto things, its generally a 12 months rehab process till you are unrestricted in activity but check with your surgeon anyway. I was allowed to get onto a bike (no clips) after a month or two i think as long as it was light footpath cruising. Probably looking somewhere in the 6-12 months range where your surgeon decides your ready to progress onwards to full on mountain biking, but all that varies surgeon to surgeon
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Red Peekay
Likes Dirt
Snapped the ACL in my right knee 5 years ago just before Christmas. Specialist said he wouldn't reconstruct unless it was unstable. He cleaned it out and I rehabed doing a lot of hamstring strengthening (it acts in the same manner as the ACL by pulling the tibia back) and was skiing in July that year. Its been strong ever since. However I wasn't intending to play football or basketball, but ski hard. Also no other damage ie. medial ligament or meniscus. Recovery is really dependent on you, how much rehab you do and your genetic makeup (some people are fast healers). What I can say, is if your up for a reconstruction, make sure you do heaps of strengthening work on both legs before the op..... the stronger you are before the better the recovery. Good luck.
rone
Eats Squid
Six weeks and three days. Not that I was counting. I suspect it will be dependent on the injury type though. Six to eight weeks is a rough guide but I would seek advice from your doctor as he will know better than anyone. However, from personal experience doctors tend to err on the side of caution and over-estimate recovery times. I feel your pain...
ned the rider
Likes Dirt
I did mine about a year and a half ago it took me about 5 months to start riding DH again. On Saturday I twisted my knee again the exact same way as the first time now i think I have done my ACL again will have to wait for MRI's on thursday to find out for sure but I'm not looking forward to it. It sucks not being able to ride and having to do all the rehab exercises but if you don't do them your knee will take even longer to return to 100%, so the time it takes to recover really depends on how bad it is and how committed you are to do rehab work.
Wisey
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Did mine skiing a month ago, surgery next Tuesday. Specialist has said wk 3 after surgery wind trainer, wk 4 gym, wk 8 xc bike and maybe wk 16 skiing (not fazed if no skiing this year). Full recovery I believe does take 12-18 months. I have been pushing myself hard with training to get my leg as strong as possible before the opp, lots of XC, gym etc. Muscle just falls off without the ACL, blew me away how quickly. Going for the last DH ride this Sat for a few months.
And Red Peekay, skiing hard (I guess we all have a different idea of what hard is) definately requires two ACL's, skiing at moderate speeds in control does not, as I discovered for the last 10 days of my trip...
Edit - I should add you can still ride without an ACL, no nerves in the ACL so it's not painful, I actually find riding XC makes it feel better and DH I just back off a little.
And Red Peekay, skiing hard (I guess we all have a different idea of what hard is) definately requires two ACL's, skiing at moderate speeds in control does not, as I discovered for the last 10 days of my trip...
Edit - I should add you can still ride without an ACL, no nerves in the ACL so it's not painful, I actually find riding XC makes it feel better and DH I just back off a little.
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Mattydv
Likes Bikes and Dirt
I did my PCL (grade 2), got back on the bike in about a month doing easy road rides, in about 7 weeks I was doing big roadie stuff, around 2 months I was hammering again off road.
Good luck with it though, it's a bugger of an injury that may well haunt you for years to come!
Good luck with it though, it's a bugger of an injury that may well haunt you for years to come!
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
PCL and ACL tears are different kettle of fish. PCL is part of the posterior capsule complex of the knee and can heal spontaneously and in general leaves no residual instability. Footy players may notice some instability when backing away from a tackle/ruck and then stopping suddenly to push forward.
A torn ACL however has nothing to hold the ends together as it floats inside the joint. That means that both a partial and complete tear can leave you with front/back and rotational (pivoting) instability.
The vulnerable movements usually involve pivoting the knee externally over a locked foot. By that I mean the toes are pointing toward the other leg relative to the knee. In that position the ACL is essential to stability. By the nature of any rotational instability, the consequences of this instability are a twisting force combined with partial or total giving way - a mechanism that does damage to the menisci of the knee (stabilising cartilages between the upper and lower leg).
From the moment a meniscus is torn, the knee starts to degenerate. The more episodes of instability combined with pain and swelling, the faster the arthritis sets in. There is no cure for arthritis in the knee. Unfortunately in a large percentage of ACL tears the menisci are also torn. Delaying surgery to the menisci (which in ideal circumstance can be repaired rather than removed) can leave you behind the 8 ball in the future. This is why surgeons will sometimes do an arthroscopic "clean-out" early, but wait to see how stable the knee ends up.
Some ACL deficient knees do end up quite stable. Choice of activity is obviously a factor. Straight line activities including running may be fine. Actually, you can ski with an ACL deficient knee because the mechanism of making a turn (advanced turn) involves the foot and knee being aligned or even slight external rotation of the foot relative to the knee. These positions rely on the quads and hamstrings and the ACL is not required for stability. I have known lots of pro skiers to ski on with terribly unstable knees (based on a decade of running ski injury clinics in NSW).
The key to recovery from ACL surgery is patience. The torn ACL is removed and replaced with part of the patella tendon or some hamstring tendon, or in some cases synthetic grafts (there is one modern version that is reliable - you can't just put in some kevlar string as an alternative). If a live graft is used, it changes structure after implantation. In short it dies and Type 1 collagen changes to type 4. This process takes a few months to start and can be a year in completion. During the transition the graft weakens and can be easily stretched or torn. That is when you don't want to be pivoting or overdoing it.
Unfortunately aggressive riding involves lots of pivoting on flexed knees. It makes little difference whether clipped or on flats and the dramatic motion can be seen in slow-mo videos or freeride and DH MTB in particular. Therefore going for it too early may feel OK, but be straining the graft and damaging the menisci. Road cycling would be good and to be honest I doubt if I could keep off the MTB myself, but you have to be very careful.
After a year, well, then mostly it will be fine. Think of the tortoise and the hare.
A torn ACL however has nothing to hold the ends together as it floats inside the joint. That means that both a partial and complete tear can leave you with front/back and rotational (pivoting) instability.
The vulnerable movements usually involve pivoting the knee externally over a locked foot. By that I mean the toes are pointing toward the other leg relative to the knee. In that position the ACL is essential to stability. By the nature of any rotational instability, the consequences of this instability are a twisting force combined with partial or total giving way - a mechanism that does damage to the menisci of the knee (stabilising cartilages between the upper and lower leg).
From the moment a meniscus is torn, the knee starts to degenerate. The more episodes of instability combined with pain and swelling, the faster the arthritis sets in. There is no cure for arthritis in the knee. Unfortunately in a large percentage of ACL tears the menisci are also torn. Delaying surgery to the menisci (which in ideal circumstance can be repaired rather than removed) can leave you behind the 8 ball in the future. This is why surgeons will sometimes do an arthroscopic "clean-out" early, but wait to see how stable the knee ends up.
Some ACL deficient knees do end up quite stable. Choice of activity is obviously a factor. Straight line activities including running may be fine. Actually, you can ski with an ACL deficient knee because the mechanism of making a turn (advanced turn) involves the foot and knee being aligned or even slight external rotation of the foot relative to the knee. These positions rely on the quads and hamstrings and the ACL is not required for stability. I have known lots of pro skiers to ski on with terribly unstable knees (based on a decade of running ski injury clinics in NSW).
The key to recovery from ACL surgery is patience. The torn ACL is removed and replaced with part of the patella tendon or some hamstring tendon, or in some cases synthetic grafts (there is one modern version that is reliable - you can't just put in some kevlar string as an alternative). If a live graft is used, it changes structure after implantation. In short it dies and Type 1 collagen changes to type 4. This process takes a few months to start and can be a year in completion. During the transition the graft weakens and can be easily stretched or torn. That is when you don't want to be pivoting or overdoing it.
Unfortunately aggressive riding involves lots of pivoting on flexed knees. It makes little difference whether clipped or on flats and the dramatic motion can be seen in slow-mo videos or freeride and DH MTB in particular. Therefore going for it too early may feel OK, but be straining the graft and damaging the menisci. Road cycling would be good and to be honest I doubt if I could keep off the MTB myself, but you have to be very careful.
After a year, well, then mostly it will be fine. Think of the tortoise and the hare.
whitey89
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Did my acl when i was 14, playing rugby. Had it opperated on at the SAN, they have an excellent orthopedic section.
I pulled it out of the bone rather than snapping it (because i was so young) the sliced open my knee, drilled though the bone and reattached it.
Took 6 weeks in a ankle to thigh cast and another 3-4 weeks before i could bend my knee to about 80% of its stretch. Its been 8 years and my knee is still quite sensative, even the slightest bump on the edge of a table will send me into agony.
It is a LONG road to recovery. Having said that, i know of people who are lucky enough to have athroscopes and only take 6-8 weeks and are good to go. Each case is different.
I pulled it out of the bone rather than snapping it (because i was so young) the sliced open my knee, drilled though the bone and reattached it.
Took 6 weeks in a ankle to thigh cast and another 3-4 weeks before i could bend my knee to about 80% of its stretch. Its been 8 years and my knee is still quite sensative, even the slightest bump on the edge of a table will send me into agony.
It is a LONG road to recovery. Having said that, i know of people who are lucky enough to have athroscopes and only take 6-8 weeks and are good to go. Each case is different.
Sketchl
Likes Bikes
ACL recon and meniscectomy
Snapped my left ACL a couple of years ago and kept DH/riding until my knee kept dislocating continually which tore up my menicus.
I had the ACL reconstruction and meniscectomy operation at the end of Jan this year and was on the trainer in 2 wks and currently on the roadie since wk 6.
It also depends on the surgeon and I wouldn't go past Dr Leo Pinczewski.
Note that I've followed a strict rehab regime, exercises 3 x per day initially and then moved onto the gym daily. I recommend that you push your physio to the limit without tearing your operated hamstring.
I hope to be back on the XC in a month and DH in near future.
Good luck!
Snapped my left ACL a couple of years ago and kept DH/riding until my knee kept dislocating continually which tore up my menicus.
I had the ACL reconstruction and meniscectomy operation at the end of Jan this year and was on the trainer in 2 wks and currently on the roadie since wk 6.
It also depends on the surgeon and I wouldn't go past Dr Leo Pinczewski.
Note that I've followed a strict rehab regime, exercises 3 x per day initially and then moved onto the gym daily. I recommend that you push your physio to the limit without tearing your operated hamstring.
I hope to be back on the XC in a month and DH in near future.
Good luck!
The Last Streetfighter
Cannon Fodder
My rehab protocol didn't allow swimming for 12 weeks post op and was discouraged even then. Stationary bike and proper gym workout rehab is essential.
If you have just done ACL and nothing more, the best prehab you can do is squats and deadlifts (regular and stiff leg). Get as much strength and size into your quads and hammies (and even calf) as you can using straight line movements, because it can all disappear after the op. I was left with jelly for a thigh after my op. (Recon using the hamstring tendon.)
Post op the recovery times vary quite dramatically. I was doing physio with up to 5 other guys and there was a massive range of recovery rates.
If you have just done ACL and nothing more, the best prehab you can do is squats and deadlifts (regular and stiff leg). Get as much strength and size into your quads and hammies (and even calf) as you can using straight line movements, because it can all disappear after the op. I was left with jelly for a thigh after my op. (Recon using the hamstring tendon.)
Post op the recovery times vary quite dramatically. I was doing physio with up to 5 other guys and there was a massive range of recovery rates.
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Steve-0
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Must of missed this thread,
haha A physio and a Surgeon said it was torn everything but an MRI and a boss surgeon revealed that it was || that close to being that way but wasn't.
My surgeon (Dr Fardoulys, LARS inventor/king in AUS) said mine would be 3 months before it's upto full strength but everything else would need 6 months to be up to speed. Such as my Hamstring (where he took the ligament from) and the knee stabilizing muscles.
I didn't do enough physio in the start so I didn't get full ROM for awhile but I was riding at 4 months, off-road at 6 months, light DH at 9 months and now racing Downhill at 12... Really, If you have full range of movement and it feels good then you should be right, but take it easy! Depends on the surgeon/surgery/your ACL etc.
Slightly still OT: I can ride bikes better then ever but occasionally can't walk. I think it's my meniscle tear coming back, or something floating around inside. Either way, it sucks balls. At the same time, breaking my ACL was the best thing that's happened to me!
Fixed
haha A physio and a Surgeon said it was torn everything but an MRI and a boss surgeon revealed that it was || that close to being that way but wasn't.Are you riding your bike yet? First step I would say would be to get Full ROM first and a decent amount of supporting strength in the legs. Then Ask your surgeon!
My surgeon (Dr Fardoulys, LARS inventor/king in AUS) said mine would be 3 months before it's upto full strength but everything else would need 6 months to be up to speed. Such as my Hamstring (where he took the ligament from) and the knee stabilizing muscles.
I didn't do enough physio in the start so I didn't get full ROM for awhile but I was riding at 4 months, off-road at 6 months, light DH at 9 months and now racing Downhill at 12... Really, If you have full range of movement and it feels good then you should be right, but take it easy! Depends on the surgeon/surgery/your ACL etc.
Slightly still OT: I can ride bikes better then ever but occasionally can't walk. I think it's my meniscle tear coming back, or something floating around inside. Either way, it sucks balls. At the same time, breaking my ACL was the best thing that's happened to me!
Sketchl
Likes Bikes
Back to DH'g
As per my previous post, I had my ACL reconstructed late Jan this year and got my OK from the the best ACL surgeon this week to do what I like.
Note that I had a hamstring, not a Lars reconstruction and have been already trail riding at 5 months. It's an individual process but I put my recovery solely down to intense rehab!
As per my previous post, I had my ACL reconstructed late Jan this year and got my OK from the the best ACL surgeon this week to do what I like.
Note that I had a hamstring, not a Lars reconstruction and have been already trail riding at 5 months. It's an individual process but I put my recovery solely down to intense rehab!