ACL Knee Surgery
in Denver, Colorado
Most patients who are active cannot tolerate absence of the ACL. Although small (one-third inch thick and less than 2 inches long), the ACL’s location is so perfectly tuned, the knee cannot be completely “made right” by any other means but ACL surgery. Even a large knee brace with hinges and pads falls short of stabilizing the knee in the way that your own ACL can.
Occasionally an athlete chooses to play his/her sport with a torn ACL. Over the last twenty years there have been several well-known athletes who have elected to continue their professional career without an ACL, but these are rare examples. Unfortunately most of these same athletes have gone on to suffer more serious, secondary, knee injuries, leaving them subject to degenerative joint disease at the end of their careers. The list of elite or high-demand athletes who have gone years without an ACL is astonishingly short, almost non-existent.
Because of the critical function of our native ACL, tearing it causes great compromise in the structural integrity of the knee (and often nearby joints and the low back). One analogy is the end-result of pulling one of the pins out of a hinge in your house’s front door. In time the adjacent hinges would begin to be stressed; in turn this would lead to wear and tear in the hinges and their attachments to the wooden frame.
Our longest-term studies of the effects of ACL reconstruction are sometimes criticized for not demonstrating better preservation of the joint long-term. It is important to remember, however, that those original reconstructions were not very accurate in reproducing the precise anatomy of the ACL. Not surprisingly, these “pioneering” operations had their shortcomings; similarly, their long-term results were sometimes disappointing. More recently, we have been pleased to see the “durability” of newer ACL reconstruction techniques: long-term stability and long-term joint integrity. After all, that’s what athletes are looking for: a high-functioning knee that is painless for decades to come!
If you are concerned about your ACL injury, you should contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of Denver's most highly respected ACL surgeons. Even if it's just a second opinion, it's a good idea to know for certain whether or not ACL knee surgery will help your situation.