Collateral Ligaments and other non-cruciate tendons & ligaments around the knee :

MCL injury - - Posted by wimple (wimple), 1 May 2004

Hi, I need some help!
The story so far... Had a fall last year where I did the splits sideways and twisted my knee, went to hospital and was told I'd torn a ligament and would be alright again in 3 weeks. Went to physiotherapy for 5 months, still in tremendous pain, they suspected a cartilidge tear so was finally refered to an orthopedic specialist. Saw him in October last year when he was convinced that I'd crushed my cartilidge and had 'fragments of classification' floating around!!! Following an MRI in February he has now decided that I have a 1 MCL (whatever that means) which should have healed ages ago and hasn't. I now feel like I'm going round in circles as still in terrible pain a year after injurying the knee and knee keeps clicking, slipping etc... Advice please....
Posted by oldtimehockey (oldtimehockey), 1 May 2004

I was fortunate with my MCL injury. Good news is that after 3 months the MRI indicates that the tear has healed ok and the meniscus is ok. Bad news is that MRI shows ACL badly torn which Doctors and physio had not been able to detect with Lachman test.

I was getting frustrated with what I percieved to be slow progress and occasional flare-ups of swelling and pain.  As it turns out the MCL  was not the culprit which might also be your issue.  A grade 1 tear is supposed to be the least serious. I found that lots of icing, a brace to keep lateral stability, light spinning on a stationary bike and unweighted mini squats to keep quad strength really helped me.
My physio is really good and works closely with me on exercises and keeps close tabs on progress or setbacks.
His close monitoring resulted in my booking an MRI and finding the ACL issue.  I cant really offer you advice but thanks for the opportunity to share in a common misery.
keep your chin up.  We can be thankful that our injuries were a long way from the  heart!
Posted by wimple (wimple), 1 May 2004

Hi, thanks for that, good to know that the exercises my own doctor told me to do last week are the same as you are doing - I've had no contact with a physio since August last year. Also, everything I read about this injury says that it should have been braced, but mine never has, now wondering if this has made the problem worse!!!! Will try to stay positive - keep smiling
Posted by hmaxwell (Heather M.), 1 May 2004

Since your MCL injury was never braced, I'm wondering if it has healed...but not correctly.  This happened to a soccer player I know--he had the injury which was diagnosed as an MCL rupture.  Several months later he was still in a lot of pain, but an MRI done at the time showed only a slight sprain--so the doctor assumed that it had been that way all along (i.e. not a major tear) and it was just taking it's own time to heal.  Months later they finally did a scope and found that the MCL had been fully ruptured with the original injury, but then healed incorrectly (attaching to something it shouldn't have instead of the two ends healing back together).  So the MRI (which was only done several months after original injury for some reason) showed that the MCL was sprained but not badly...but an arthroscopy showed that what looked like a sprain was in fact an incorrectly healed complete rupture.

I know this is all confusing, but I have to say, if you're this far out and still having problems, I'd go get a second opinion from a doctor that has a lot of experience with ligament injuries.

Good luck.

Heather
Posted by wimple (wimple), 5 May 2004

Saw my GP yesterday (not sure what they call them in the US)  to sort out pain relief, when I mentioned the slipping sensation, she said that the patella could be dislocating - what was she talking about She went very quiet after saying this and said it was outside her field of expertise and would I please make sure to tell the consultant what she suspects! HELP!!!!!! Also, should somebody have suggested strapping it by now?? I hate the NHS!
Posted by cgski (cgski), 7 June 2004

Similar (ish) circumstances  for me, except I started off with a ruptured MCL and ACL diagnosis (in Spanish), confirmed by the UK consultant, and then refuted by the merry registrar who waved me off saying I could do anything now, even as I protested that my knee continually collapsed if used in anger. Same conversation with the same guy a month later. As I thought I would go mad unless I took action I paid for some physio, got a referral to a private knee specialist, who confirmed, from the various hands on tests, together with the (original - extracted from the NHS) MRI scan that the acl is ruptured - apparantly at the point where ligament meets bone, so a tiny bit more difficult to see on the scan.
So, two months of wasted time. I really wonder where I would have gone with the NHS approach, if I hadn't taken this action -  as I can't really afford to do the surgery privately I then have to wriggle back into the NHS system - thankfully my GP is magnificently supportive, and am hoping that I won't have to wait toooo long to get it fixed. (...just saw a pig fly past, too...)
MCL (grade 3) tear seems to be healed (4 months) - two months of which was with a brace.
Can let you know who I saw and where and how much if you like, by private message (did you get the first one?) - we are in similar locations, I think. cgski    
Posted by wimple (wimple), 7 June 2004

Hi there,
Yes I did get the private one, many thanks for taking the time to do that. I've had another consultation since posting my original message and the consultant now thinks its a problem with the patello femoral joint and has put me on a waiting list for an arthroscopy and possible lateral release, along with anything else that turns up whilst he's rooting around in there! Apparently the day surgery list at mine is approximately 2 months long, so hopefully the end is nigh!!! Though, from experience, when the NHS says 2 months they actually mean more like 5 or 6. Hope you get some joy soon.
Posted by cgski (cgski), 7 June 2004

That could be a good little hint for me - Frimley Park isn't my "local" - but would be perfectly convenient if the waiting lists were short (and the doc OK). Don't think they do acl recons as day surgery in the UK, though. cgski
Posted by wimple (wimple), 7 June 2004

Hi,
Looking at the waiting lists maybe yours has better waiting times, though they do have a private suite. Their normal orthpedic waiting times are pretty long, last time I read the details it was about 250 days from referral to first appointment, so you may be better sticking to the one where your GP knows the system.

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