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

Recovery from ACL and MCL Repair - - Posted by Ben (Ben), 11 January 2005

Can anyone help me?!

I had ACL repair (using my patella tendon) done about 12 years ago, and recovered well being able to do everything apart from tennis and ski.

Went to see new OS a few months ago, he looked at MRI scan and said I needed to have another operation, as ACL repair wasn't working and MCL was also torn, along with tear in meniscus.

Had operation 6 weeks ago, with OS telling me he wanted me at 90 degrees range of motion after 2 weeks (standard for ACL repair).  Unfortuantely, after nearly 6 weeks, I'm still really struggling with getting the range of motion back.

Every physical therapy session is really painful, and the bending causes severe pain on the inside of my knee (presumably where the MCL repair is(?)).  On a good day I seem to be able to get up to around 75 degrees but no more, and I've been at that level for about 3 weeks with no further progress.

Has anyone had a MCL repair at the same time as an ACL repair - I wonder if it's typical for the range of motion to come back slower than when it's just an ACL repair?

Am starting to get desperate as all this pain doesn't seem to be resulting in any progress!

Would be really grateful if anyone has any advise or thoughts...
Posted by shadehawk (shadehawk), 12 January 2005

Hi Ben, I have found a couple of articles that might pertain to your condition, hope this will help you some.

http://www.orthopedictechreview.com/issues/janfeb03/pg14.htm.

http://www.orthojournalhms.org/ojhms2002/manuscripts/manuscripts-08.htm
Posted by Ben (Ben), 12 January 2005

These have beem helpful - thanks.

It sounds like they're aren't many people who have both ACL and MCL repair, preferring normally to just have the ACL repair and then let the MCL repair naturally.  Unfortuantely that didn't seem to havppen with my MCL, so had to have both done...

Just got to keep working on that range of motion now...
Posted by shadehawk (shadehawk), 12 January 2005

Hey Ben, glad that info helped you some.  It does seem that what you have is rare.

Don't know if that is a distinction that you can appreciate though as you would like to talk to others who have gone though this proceedure and you could compare experiences.

There does seem to be many posts on ACL though, so jump into some conversations with those folks, bet they could help you out with rehab.

Good luck.  

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