Cruciate ligaments :

ACL TEAR? opinions - - Posted by timtlo (timtlo), 15 January 2005

Hello everyone. I was playing basketball 6 days ago and my knee buckled inwards(side to side). I went down like a sack of potatoes and it really hurt. There was no swelling the first night and I could walk on it alright except for stiffness and pain. The next morning there was some swelling and alot of pain. I went to the emergency room and they x-ray'd and did some manual manipulation. They said the good news was no ligament damage but I had an avulsion fracture on my tibia. They refered me to an orthopedic surgeon. He took one look at the X'ray and said 'that's a Segond's fracture and you have a ruptured acl. We'll have to do a reconstructive surgery'. I just had a MRI today and I don't see the doctor again for 2 weeks. Everyone says that you have immediate swelling with an acl rupture. Six days now since the injury and the swelling is gone, it was never really that swelled to begin with. I know I'll find out in 2 weeks, but I'm interested in some of your opinions. Thanks.
Posted by heather_k (heather k from wales), 16 January 2005

I had a complete tear of the ACL and never really had any swelling.  
There was absolutley no way I could put any weight on my leg immediatley after the injury.  It took a good 4 or 5 days until I could.
The pain was unbelievable......far worse than a break!.

Hope that helps, good luck with your diagnosis and recovery,

Heather
Posted by Gab (Gab), 16 January 2005

Ditto, what Heather said: My knee didn't really swell that much, I couldn't put weight on my leg and it hurt far worse than a break (might have something to do with the bone contusions when the tibia and femur rammed against each other).

The MRI usually doesn't lie, whether the ACL is blown or not.
Posted by jbluestein (jbluestein), 16 January 2005

for self daignosis: check this site.

http://www.orthoassociates.com/ACL_Indications.htm
Posted by timtlo (timtlo), 16 January 2005

I appreciate the responses. I'll just have to wait until I see the Dr. to really find out what's going on. The curiosity and anticipation are killing me though, I can't wait to find out. Six days after the injury now and I can walk nearly normal with little pain. This site is such a wonderful resource for information, it's great. Thanks again.

Tim
Posted by libertynm (libertynm), 17 January 2005

Hi Tim,

I had some swelling, but not externally prominent swelling.  The swelling got in the way of bending my knee normally.  I noticed my ability to bend freely 3 weeks after the injury rather than my inability to bend right around the injury.  The injury was moderately painful and I was limping visibly for months.

My tear was vertical (rather than the more common horizontal) with stretching and fraying throughout.

Sincerely,
Nesanet
Posted by timtlo (timtlo), 26 January 2005

Just thought I'd update my situation for everyone, I've realized in the last couple weeks that I enjoy following everyones individual circumstances and comparing and using them against my own. Anyway, I saw the DR today and I did in fact completely tear my ACL. I've been full weight bearing on it since two days after my injury. It's now been 2 weeks and 2 days since my injury and I have both full flexion and extension and am walking normally with no pain. I was feeling so good that I was gaurdedly optimistic that the Doc would tell me it wasn't ruptured after all. Not so lucky though. I am going to have an allograft recon on Feb. 9 using a tendon from the ankle(can't remember which one). My Dr. is a very experienced and respected OS here in Minnesota, USA(PHD,MD). He said it was up to me which method we used;allograft or hamstring autograft. He said the results of both are very similar. I chose the allograft basically because it will allow me to return to work sooner. He said there is less post-operative pain and you can start re-habbing a bit sooner with the allograft.. So, I hope someone finds this beneficial, I'll be scouring the board daily for tidbits of info.

Tim
Posted by Gab (Gab), 26 January 2005

Good luck with your surgery. At leat that's good that you walked on it so soon, your muscles won't already be beaten up by the time you go under.
Posted by jbluestein (jbluestein), 26 January 2005

good luck timlo - is the ankle tendon you're referring to   an achilles tendon?  

Here's a link to study comparing patellar tendon autgrafts and allografts.

Not exactly what you're facing, but you get the idea.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12724673&dopt=Abstract

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