ACL INJURY

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What’s the Treatment for an ACL Injury?

Depending on how severely your child was injured, here are a few possibilities our doctor could suggest to the parent:

Initial care. If your child’s injury is minimal, elevate your child’s leg, apply ice to your knee, and keep him or her sitting or laying down.  By compressing your knee with an Ace bandage, you can lessen swelling. Crutches might assist in removing weight from your child’s knee.

Medications. Anti-inflammatory medications can aid in reducing pain and swelling. Our doctor may advise over-the-counter drugs or prescribe a stronger prescription. Our doctor could inject steroid medicine into your child’s knee if the pain is severe.

Knee brace. Some children with an injured ACL can continue to run or participate in sports while wearing a brace on their knee. It offers further assistance.

Physical therapy. To restore your child’s knee functionality, your child could require physical therapy a few days each week. The exercises your child undergoes will help restore a complete range of motion by strengthening the muscles around the knee.

Surgery. Our doctor may say your child needs surgery if he or she has a severely torn cruciate ligament, or if the child’s knee hurts when walking. Surgery will replace the damaged tissue so that new ligaments can grow in their place. With physical therapy, people who have had surgery can often resume exercising within 12 months.

What Is ACL Injury Surgery?

ACL surgery is a procedure doctors use to replace torn ligaments in the knee. When it strains or rips, it sustains an injury. Our doctor will replace your child’s damaged ACL with a tendon after removing it. (Tendons attach muscle to bone). The objective is to restore your child’s knee’s stability and give it the complete range of motion it had before the injury. A graft occurs when a tendon is implanted into your child’s knee. With ACL surgery, three different graft types may be utilized:

Autograft. A tendon from another part of the body is used by the doctor (like the other knee, hamstring, or thigh).

Allograft. This kind of transplant utilizes an external source of tissue (a deceased donor).

Synthetic graft. This is the time when synthetic materials take the place of the tendon. Silk and silver fibers were among the first ones utilized (in the early part of the 20th century). Although there are now more sophisticated possibilities like Teflon and carbon fiber, researchers are still trying to identify the optimum material to replace ACLs.

ACL Surgery Procedure

To repair an ACL, doctors frequently use arthroscopic surgery. They do this by making small incisions around the knee, then inserting tiny instruments and a camera. Compared to open-knee surgery, this procedure leaves fewer scars. The procedure takes one hour to complete. In order to prevent your child from feeling anything in their legs for a few hours after surgery, our doctor may choose to use a local anesthetic rather than general anesthesia, which would put your child to sleep throughout the procedure. If a local anesthetic is used, your child will probably also be given medication to calm him or her while the treatment is being done.

The first step is to place the graft in the proper location. Next, doctors cut two holes called “tunnels.” One goes in the upper knee bone and he puts the other one in the lower bone. They place screws in the tunnel to hold the graft in place. It acts as a bridge of sorts for new ligaments to grow as it heals. It may take several months for the new ACL to fully grow. After surgery, most patients can leave the hospital on the same day. Our doctor will ask your child to step very lightly on the leg with the injured ACL, rest your knee, and wear a brace to protect your joint as it heals.

Medical Research for an ACL Injury

Researchers are also working with physicians to determine if a novel approach to ACL surgery is superior to current treatments. Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair (BEAR) is the name of the new procedure. BEAR, in contrast to conventional ACL surgery, encourages the injured ACL to mend on its own without the need for replacement. Between the ACL tears in the knee, doctors place a specific, small sponge. The doctors then sew the frayed, loose ends of the ACL into the sponge after injecting it with your child’s own blood. It serves as the ACL’s support. The damaged ends eventually mend and regenerate into brand-new, sound ACL tissue.

ACL Surgery Risks

ACL surgery carries dangers, just like any other form of surgery. In general, surgery might result in:

• Bleeding at the wound
• Infection
• Shock
• Blood clots
• Breathing issues
• Trouble peeing
• Reaction to anesthesia

With ACL surgery, in particular, the threats include:

• Knee pain
• Stiffness in the knee
• A graft not healing well
• A graft failing after your child returned to physical activity

ACL Injury Surgery Recovery

You’ll receive instructions on how to change the dressing on your child’s wound before you leave the hospital. Our medical staff will advise the parent to keep the affected knee elevated on cushions, apply ice to it, and bandage it. To relieve the strain on your child’s knee, he or she should use crutches. Our doctor may prescribe medicine to treat pain, such as:

• A nonprescription drug such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen
• Prescription medications

Finally. as previously mentioned, our doctors at the Medical City Children’s Orthopedics and Spine Specialists, with offices in Dallas, Arlington, Flower Mound, Frisco, and McKinney, TX will recommend physical therapy as the ACL starts to heal. That will support the muscles and ligaments in becoming stronger. After that, your child ought to be able to resume his or her favorite activities in roughly nine months. For athletes, it may take up to a year before they may resume their sport.

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Footnote:

Medline Plus:  ACL Injury