Cruciate ligaments :

ACL recon without incision to shin - - Posted by 1Boysie (1Boysie), 5 December 2004

Hi all

Can anyone shed light on this?

Met a guy at a ski shop today who'd had an acl recon this May using hamstring in the UK. He only had two arthroscopic incisions beneath his patella- no vertical incision in his shin.

Is this a new proceedure? He claimed he had no loss of nervous sensation on his shin and the op was minimally invasive.

I am confused. Is there a proceedure which avoids the damage that I experienced?

Any comments appreciated.

Good luck all!



Julian


Posted by Elly (Elly), 2 January 2005

hey, i'm due for this op in England soon.

To see exactly how it's done, go to the knee guru home page and click on cruciate ligamants (from the list at the bottom) and you'll be able to find a link on the left that shows how it's done.

Elly

Posted by libertynm (libertynm), 3 January 2005

Wow, just two incisions!  I was under the impression that the arthroscopic reconstructions utilized 4-5 incisions.  Perhaps this is a new method?
Posted by nas (nas), 4 January 2005

The choice of using the hamstring instead of the patellar tendon has gained some currency.  Most surgeons have a preference on which procedure to do, based on their experience, comfort level, the injury, and the patient.  Some links that may be of interest to you are:

http://www.orthoassociates.com/ACL_grafts.htm  - A very thorough explanation the common graft options (I found the link through google and it has also been referenced on this site by the Kneeguru).  This is my favorite, but it is quite long.

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/aclrepain/a/aclgrafts.htm - A rather quick and dirty explanation.  This is a good intro

Personally, the first surgeon I went to only presented me with two options: the autograft patellar and the allograft patellar.  He recommended an allograft (a donor patellar tendon from a cadaver), without giving much reason why.

I then got a second opinion from a surgeon who works with professional football players, and his sports medicine team performs only autograft, because it is the "gold standard."  I liked his confidence and experience, and so opted for that option, even though it will lead to a longer, more painful initial recovery.  We'll see how it goes!  Hope that helps..

This old Forum was so valuable that we have kept it as an archive. It is just for reference. If you want to ask questions or offer advice, there is also a current Bulletin Board which you can access from our home page.

Hunting for information is a slow process. browsing through these topics will probably raise a lot of questions in your mind. Don't forget that there is a whole site behind these forums - just click the 'KNEEguru' home button at the top left of your page when you are ready to access it.