I just found out yesterday I have a torn ACL, meniscus, and bone contusions on the knee. I initially tore it in august and knew something was wrong but didn't get it checked out, then got 2 rides in on my new bike, and I hurt it again, go figure!

Anyone who's been in my situation who did you go to for your surgery and how long were you out? I hear a lot of horror stories of peoples replacements failing. Also from reading on the other message board thumpertalk.com I see that Dr. Mark has you back on a bike in 3 months.

Dr. Steedman in Puyallup did mine. Same leg patella tendon. I was riding slow (slower than normal) in 5 months, racing in 6 months. In my opinion, and Marnie will argue this, but a live pattela tendon is the only way to go. The research I did says dead tendons don't last and hamstrings aren't strong enough for a year.

I had almost the same thing as you except for bone contusions, my bones were actually split in two places.

You will get a lot of different opinions on this subject but having had 4 of them myself I can give you a little insite on my experience. I actually work for my Orthpedic doctor and have for the last 9 years. I have read Dr. Mark's article about being back on the bike in 3 months and have actually printed it to have the Dr's read it. Although they thought it was interesting he did not agree w/ it.

My first two ACL's failed because I did not rehab correctly nor give it the proper time to heal as instructed. It felt good so I went back to playing my sports to soon. My last two have sucessful and I am very happy about that. If you want to do it right you will need to give it a good 6 months depending on how well you do. You will need to give the graft and any additional damage a chance to heal. You will have muscle atrophy that will take months to get back and unless you have access to a personal trainer 24/7 that takes time. The stronger your muscle is afterwards the better protected your knee it will be. Every doctor will be different as to wether they use a cadaver or your own patellar/hamstring graft. I have had a petallar graft(didn't work) and as of now both knees have a cadaver. There are pro's and con's to both but hopefully your Dr. will choose what he feels is right for you.

I am more then happy to provide more info if you would like. Just give me a call 206-386-9614.

I did the right knee twice, first time hamstring and the second cadaver.

Rehab was not any quicker or slower either way. Yes we could argue for days on the which is better topic, but they were able to use a thicker overall solution with cadaver because there is a limit to how much patella or hamstring they will harvest.

In both case I was riding/racing at 6 months and that was the bare min my Ortho would agree to.

Strengthen the muscles if you can before surgery and work you but off hard and often post surgery. You need lots of blood flow to the new tendon for it to incorporate and the lack of it would kill either your own or cadaver.

Me? I say don't rob Paul to pay Peter, use the cadaver.

Dr. Patricia Shands, but she out of town for a while. I ride carefully until she is back

Thank you all for the info and also after all of this is done who is wearing knee braces? Some say they won't ride without them, others say are useless and it is best to just strengthen the leg good and I hear they can break your leg where the brace and boot meet. I know I can get insurance to pay for CTI2's. When the injury happened I was not wearing braces.

I was wearing EVS visions when I did mine. I believe they are an inferior product. Now I wear Asterisks. I know that nothing can make an injury 100% preventable but I think they are the best. My surgeon said it best, he said that when you are coming off a jump or going into a corner, you don't want to be thinking will my knee take this, you have more important things to think about.

My Doc says that any protection you can wear is good, but jamming/twisting injuries (predominant ACL) will not be prevented by knee braces. My second ACL I was wearing Don Joy knee braces.

There are other injuries it will prevent however.

ive had both knees done twice each...wear cti's cant ride without em....broke em once sent em in got a new set for free!!! find another company willing to stand behind theres...wont find it!

quote:

Originally posted by jb329:
Thank you all for the info and also after all of this is done who is wearing knee braces? Some say they won't ride without them, others say are useless and it is best to just strengthen the leg good and I hear they can break your leg where the brace and boot meet. I know I can get insurance to pay for CTI2's. When the injury happened I was not wearing
braces.

I now have CTI's and my insurance paid for them. The only part that is not covered are the knee cap quards and that was a small part for me pay but worth it. Took a couple of rides to get used to them but so far they seem to work well when I crash.

Dr. Craig McCallister at Evergreen Orthapedic Center did my knee in May last year and I was ridind by September. That was with intence training. He did a hamstring graff cleaned up all the meniscus along with others. I was wearing asteriscs when i blew it up, thank god, could have been way worse when it was dislocated. Dr. McCallister did a great job.

quote:

Originally posted by yes:
Dr. Craig McCallister at Evergreen Orthapedic Center did my knee in May last year and I was ridind by September. That was with intence training. He did a hamstring graff cleaned up all the meniscus along with others. I was wearing asteriscs when i blew it up, thank god, could have been way worse when it was dislocated. Dr. McCallister did a great job.

Didn't He used to ride at MXGP?

yes he rode at mxgp. he even did Strodes knee.

i also went to Dr. Craig McCallister at Evergreen Orthopedic Center after talking to Steve. Had a hamstring graft done and cleaned up the meniscus and rest of knee. I live in Royal City not to far from toes mxp and I had surgery around 7 a.m. and was back over the pass and in my recliner by 5 p.m. Been almost two months now and the knee feels good, just need to get the rest of the leg stronger and hopefully be riding this fall.

If you're in Ellensburg I would check with Dr. Roux in Yakima. He did a great job on my acl/miniscus in 01, surgery in June was racing in September. I know he's done some work on Dan Moore as well.

Lots of good info here

http://www.factotem.org/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl

The doc I went to today said my ACL is ruptured and the bones are knocking on impact because there is no tissue between them. He says I will be out 4-6 months and will use the patella tendon? He said it's my decision if I wait to get it fixed until the season is over. I am going to go to a second doctor and get another opinion before I decide but I think I'm going to go ahead and get the surgery done now before I hurt it even worse. I meet with the CTI rep next week so I will be getting a pair of the braces.

Work hard to get it strong now and after surgery work hard at therapy and you will be back before you know it.

Steedman is great, but if want the best.....Richard Zorn for Knee's & shoulders......Did my knee right after Nick Collison's shoulder, he is the man.....

I went to Houston and had Dr Sanders do my acl, thats where id go again without even calling a local guy. Doing the acl fron the opposite or good leg is the ticket.

Thanks paul and dave i got an appointment with steedman on monday