Cyst on ACL

[tai]

Hello,

It's been a while since I've posted here because my left knee is doing quite well lately but I started to have pain in my right knee about 6 months ago and finally had an MRI yesterday.  It showed that I have a cyst on my ACL.  The doc said that he can't be sure that it's the cause of my pain but it the only thing he saw on the MRI.  The only treatment option he gave me was surgery to cut it out.  I'm very hesitant to have surgery since I developed a good amount of scar tissue after my first one (on my other knee) and it took me over a year to recover (actually, I'm not even 100% recovered yet) but he said there was no other way to get rid of it.  The pain I have is on the inside of my knee (near the joint line) so it's not really near the ACL but the doc said that it could cause pain in different places. 

Does anyone have an experience with this?  I'm obviously going to get a second opinion but in the meantime, I thought I'd ask here...

Any advice or information would be great.  Thanks!

Tai

[Clarkey]

Hi Tai,

I cant give you much advise but I do know that once you have a problem with your knee it will never be 100% again. My Sister a Nurse at an Orthopaedic Ward and says once you have got a knee injury it hard to get it back to how it use to be. If you had surgery on the other knee its never going to be 100% perfect but you can still do everyday things without too many problems just have to be more careful.

Good luck with the cyst problem and hope it can be sorted out soon.

Nick {2008}

[eaglemom]

Here is my question - what type of cyst is it?  Ganglion or bakers cyst, or some other?  If its a bakers cyst I personally wouldn't have surgery.  I had a ganglion cyst and did have surgery as a last result to remove it.  It was quite the surgery as the cyst had many more "tentacles" than the mri revealed.  Truthfully its been a bugger to recover from and I'm afraid I'll have more surgery because of some nerve issues with the scar from the removal of the cyst.  By best advise is to ask tons of questions.  Have they tried to drain it?  eagle

[tai]

Thanks for your reply...  I don't know what kind of cyst it is.  Since I didn't know anything about cysts when I got the diagnosis, I wasn't prepared with any questions to ask the doctor.  I've got two appointments with other orthos scheduled and will certainly have a list of questions to ask them when I go in but right now I don't know much except that I have a cyst on my ACL and this particular doc said that draining it is not an option (although he didn't say why).

Do you (or anyone?) know if cysts tend to be the cause of knee pain when they're present?  The reason I ask is because the doc couldn't seem to tell me that this cyst was causing my pain since I feel it on the medial side of my knee and not near the ACL.  Since the rest of my MRI was normal (other than some swelling), he was assuming the cyst was the cause.  So, I'm wondering if perhaps I've had this cyst for a long time without knowing it and my pain is actually unrelated. 

Thanks for any more info that anyone can provide so I can be better informed when I talk to the doctors about my options.

Tai