ACL surgery options

ddose · Mar 2, 2018

DD (17) tore her ACL doing after landing funny doing conditioning drills two weeks ago.

She has ACL surgery in two weeks and the surgeon asked us which type of graft to perform, patellar or hamstring tendon. He does both and was happy to do either if we have a preference. We have tentatively decided on hamstring (we were still in shock at the time).

DD is a RH pitcher and injured her right (push-off) leg. Anyone have experience with either type of reconstruction for softball players? We meet with the surgeon again in a week and we will talk it over more then.

The hamstring seems popular these days, but the worry I guess is weakness in the hamstring. Some weakness there might be better than dealing with patellar pain.

She starts college in the fall so she'd like to be close to back for fall ball, otherwise she has until spring as a timeline.

Thanks

katieco0711 · Mar 2, 2018

I have torn both ACL's my first one in high school when I was a sophomore, and my second when I was a sophomore in college the first one was 10 years ago and the second was 6 years ago. Both of mine have been patella grafts and they are great. Last time I had my knee checked out the doctors said that they were very strong. I weighed all of my options when I had both surgery's done, I have always been a researcher so my parents let me make my own decisions on the matter. I'm glad I did what I did for multiple reasons. First, I have trouble with my hamstrings anyway, and I have met people who have had hamstring grafts and it was hard to recover the hamstring strength. Also, muscle are meant to stretch and if she tweaks it a hamstring graft is more likely to become loose (I have had this confirmed and denied by multiple doctors). I didn't have a cadaver because I was worried about my immune response. There are some negatives to the patella, you won't be able to stand being on your knees for about the first year or two, I know in pitching this can be a problem for drills. I just had a special pillow I carried around with me. Also, some people can develop tendinitis if you don't progress yourself in the right way when lifting, basically the same principles on how your elbow can develop tendinitis. I really didn't have patella pain because my quads were so strong from pitching, and I had a great therapist who did scar message as soon as possible so that there wasn't any build up. In the end its really up to you, but since I do have some experience with this I thought I would contribute. Hope she heals well!

marriard · Mar 2, 2018

ddose said:
DD (17) tore her ACL doing after landing funny doing conditioning drills two weeks ago.
XXXXX

She starts college in the fall so she'd like to be close to back for fall ball, otherwise she has until spring as a timeline.

Go find a surgeon who does the local pro & college sports teams and ask them which to do. They will have an informed opinion.

slugger · Mar 3, 2018

ddose said:
DD (17)
the surgeon asked us which type of graft to perform, patellar or hamstring tendon?

This would be a concern to me if a surgeon phrased the question this way.
History.. DD Sophmore year, during basketball Severed her ACL, medial meniscus tear, medial collateral ligament tear and sprain, lateral meniscus tear and chondromalacia lateral femur. The damage was very extensive. AKA the triple triad.

There first surgeon asked us the same question he asked you, but preferred the hamstring method. All in all the visit just didn't seem right. After a few days and a lot of deep breaths. we did a lot of reading and calling to understand the situation our dd was in. Well, we seen 2 more other surgeons that "both" studied under Dr. James Andrews. Both of those visits we almost idenitcal. The questions they asked were about her plans for life. Was she going to play a sport? Was she going to be playing at a high level (college). But the most important question was, what sport will it be? This was the key question. It was made perfectly clear after that decision that her new knee would be rebuilt for softball not basketball. Im sure the surgeon explained the difference, I do not recall what they were. The doctor that did the surgery used the patellar tendon.

Because the damage was so extensive, it was a long recover. 9 months. But the reason was because of the meniscus tear. Thats what slows down the recovery.

Do not rush in to your discion. Do your research.

I have read this forum a lot over the years. I have never posted. But there is a saying or philosophy on this site.
It's something like this. Take what people tell you and compare it to what you actually see. Im not sure if that is exactly right or not. But hopefully you'll understand it. There are a lot of athletes with ACL issues. You can read about them to gather more information. The NFL had 51 confirmed torn ACL's in 2017.

One more thing. Do not listen to everyone elses recovery time. Every one will recover at a different speed. Your goal should be to get stronger and to comeback ready. Not to just make a date.

If your daughter has twitter. Search for the "ACL recovery Club". She will realize that she will get through it.

Just fyi Our DD will be off to college to play softball this year. When she was recruited, the coach knew about her knee and didn't even bat an eye.

Sorry for the long post. Maybe thats why I don't post anything. lol

Sighari · Mar 3, 2018

My DD severed her ACL and both meniscus running line drills on third day of Basketball practice one day after her last fall softball game. We have done a ton of research on our own but in our experience you really have to do it. There were/are a lot of different opinions about types of graphs, types of rehabs and time frames for recovery. We educated ourselves and sought two opinions. In the end we ended up going with a surgeon that had previously worked for an MLB team. He insisted she do a month of pre-surgery physical therapy to build strength and get the swelling minimized. We did patellar tendon graft, as we felt the anchoring would be better, although we were concerned about reports of kneeling pain (she does catch sometimes). My DD is 13 yoa so we also had issues to deal with concerning growth plates and techniques used for younger patients.
My DD is now 10 weeks post surgery and all is going great. Pain was minimal after surgery, strength has returned quickly and she hasn't had any kneeling or patellar pain. Going down steps has been the biggest hurdle, but has been steadily improving and is up to doing 6 inch step downs now. As of last week she is now completely brace free. Our PT department has an underwater treadmill in a pool so she has been able to start running in there.
While it's been said here already, it is true that people will progress in recovery at different rates, but most surgeons have a protocol that they follow so I would make sure you know what your surgeons guidelines are beforehand. We also got the ice machine for cold therapy ahead of time which helped her be off meds by day three. She has also used a lower leg massager which imo has helped recovery by increasing circulation in the leg when she couldn't be up on it.

ACL surgery options

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