Anyone else had an ACL tear and kept riding without having it repaired?

Doc stated I could still cycle back end of last year…but lately it’s getting bloody sore (even with the prescribed exercises) and thinking I may need to get it sorted surgically.

Missus waited 6 months to have hers done (full tear) the knee was not stable in certain ways and was not right along with miniscal tears that were causing pain and swelling.

The list for surgery is not short so get on it.

Me. This week it’s giving me grief but on the whole it’s ok.
Have given up yoga this year as I would always be sore afterwards. Breast stroke is a definite no and sometimes using fins is to be avoided. I’ve not ran since my accident. (Not that I ran before, but even running across the road is out.)
The surgeon was keen to operate but every medical friend advised that knees were best left alone. Being a scaredy cat I was more than willing to go along with them. From what I’ve read the operation isn’t always a success . When it gets sore I have a massage and the next day it’s normally ok.
Sports wise all I can do is walk or ride my bike. Suits me.
I guess all injuries are different but I know my limits. Got passed on Wednesday ,normally I would give chase but this week just being able to ride a bike is a victory in itself.
Ps to hopefully prevent any more wear and tear Mrs Zip has green lighted a Santa Cruz Superlight. Can I get one on the NHS?
Pps tore it about 5 years ago.

The surgeon was keen to operate but every medical friend advised that knees were best left alone.

That seems like very strange advice, missus is a vet and at the time was fixing 2 or 3 of these a month in dogs. Lucky enough (maybe) to go private and was in the same place as the footballers end up, another mate got the same. Both back to full use now with no side effects.

Having been to a lot of the physio with the missus, it’s important not to over do it at the start of recovery as you can snap the replacement (think it’s hamstring) by pushing to hard.

I did this a couple years ago and due to the arrival of my eldest one u had to put the op off for 18 months. But I carried on riding both my mtb bike and moto x bike. Never really suffered to much pain from riding but I did have to change careers from being a plumber as kneeling down was impossible. Had the op over a year ago and my knee has been brilliant ever since back to playing hockey running and work as a plumber. I would recommend the op it’s totally changed things for me

Its good to hear the positive outcomes of the op. How long was the recovery? Being self employed taking a lot of time off would be difficult.

I ripped my ACL completely and partially tore my medial. Total recovery time from op back to “full fitness” was realistically a year. You might feel able to do a lot more than you think after the op but you have to follow physio advice and take it easy.

I had the hamstring graft surgery. There are a number of options but this seems to be the most common method these days.

No regrets at all about having the op. without it i would have been stuck with an unstable knee so it was a no brainer for me.

Happy to go on, and on about this if you need more detail

http://www.jointrehab.com/myofascial_pain_prolotherapy.htm
Has anyone heard of this.I came across it shortly after doing my knee.
The fact that he looks smarmy and it’s american makes it seem dodgy.

I also had the hamstring graft. Regarding recovery time, I was hobbling around on crutches for maybe a week, down to one crutch and working (desk job) after 2. Back to turning a crank took about 2 months but you are supposed to take it easy for a while to let the graft take. Still pain after 18 months under certain weird movements like dragging foot on a tennis court, but I am working on excersises to improve balance. One tip for you, try to get the leg straight as soon as possible after surgery, most of my rehab focused on that for first 8 weeks.

Good luck

I tore mine completely about 7 years ago now. Went private through work, two ops – first to clear out all the broken bits, then 6 weeks after that a reconstruction. It all went really well and despite some set backs thanks to me being over zealous with recovery/exercise I was back on my feet very quickly and starting to train properly after 6-9 months I’d say.

It was probably a good 18 months before I had full confidence in it again, but that’s a mental rather than physical thing.

My neighbour did his about 3 months after me and it took him the best part of 18 months to get it sorted out through the NHS (same consultant/surgeon as me). If you can go private do it.

I’ve not heard of anyone having a bad time with this op.

To be fair my physio says there’s no movement in the knee. It has given out twice when I tried to run. Mine is a partial tear.

Ive snapped my ACL on the left, skiing and then my tore my meniscus on the right and snapped the ACL also, through a bike injury. Doc suggested surgery both times, and both times I explored alternatives via a couple of different physio’s. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but within 3 months of the 1st injury and 9 months of the second, I’ve been back to riding at full strength. One of the changes I made, was to use pedals / cleats with more float and during recovery made various adjustments to saddle, both up and down. Surgery was and would be an absolute final step for me, and I wanted to try various things first. So far, so good and as that was 4+ years ago I’m in no rush……

Get the op.. I had the hamstring graft op and the “crucial” part is the physio afterwards I had a set of exercises to do 3 times a day plus attended a physio class twice a week before work with progressive physio I had full strength(as biodex machine showed) to match my good leg after 8 months .. I was spinning on turbo after 6 weeks(easy) leg did feel bit strange for maybe 1-2 years after op but been fine for 8 years now fell running/mtb/road and general life 🙂

I think the key thing to consider is what you want/expect to do following this type of injury. As above you can possibly get by just fine with some good physio and specific exercise. If you want to just ride then you may well be fine, but if you want to do anything that involves twisting or turning (for me this included football, snowboarding, climbing, running) then I’d recommend the op. A friend at work had an ACL tear and didn’t want the op, he was a keen golfer and badminton player and his knee frequently gave way.

The A&E doctor that triaged me suggested I didn’t get the op and just swap my bike for a TV remote. Didn’t go down well.

Ive snapped my anterior cruciate in my right leg 4 times after 3 repairs this time snapping a quad muscle as well as tearing posterior cruciate badly,im still riding regularly but wear a cti custom carbon knee brace for protection of the joint.

Thanks folks…Think I’ll take a trip back to the doc.

Mr Snapper pics and details of your brace please.

If it was my knee and a complete ACL rupture I would want it reconstructed.

My biggest piece of advice is get it’s straight ASAP after the op. I ditched my crutches as soon as I got home and took my price off within 3 days cause it was bruising my leg up in other places. Just keep icing it and trying to get it straight. Also don’t try and push urself to hard it won’t help. I was back plumbing and kneeling down after 6/8 weeks. Managed to keep off my bike for 4 months mainly by keeping it locked in my mates garage!!!! Best decision I ever made getting it fixed

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@mather01

I’ve had a totally broken ACL in my left knee for 30 years, I’ve skied pretty hard since busting it, I’ve played club tennis and I’ve been riding mtb’s for 6 years since taking it up, had plenty crashes and knee has never been an issue. In December I broke the one in my right knee.

The first I did when I was 20 and was back playing reasonably high level sport within 3 months. This time at 50 it’s been tough and after 5 months I’m stil not riding. I do know what I can and can’t do, certainly nothing like football with a risk of side on contact or twisting.

I was quite surprised to be told on Friday that the doctor did not want to operate to repair torn meniscus or the much larger ACL rebuild op as given I’ve managed for 30 years to be active with no ACL in my left knee he wanted me to focus on rehab first. I have no pain though.

An ACL rebuild/replacement involves cutting a piece out of your thigh (hamstring?) and using that as a new ACL. I was told its 1 month off work and 8 month rehab, I’ve had mates who’ve had it done and who say two years later it’s totally sorted and they are very happy.

Go and see a specialist sports doctor, it’s hurting so something is wrong. How is your physio, how many times a week do you have physio ? Good luck.

The carbon custom fit knee braces have been recommended to me by a physio friend, from memory they are £500.

Another busted acl here, done 15 years ago. Nearly took my leg off just below the knee, so other complications involved, however I still ride regularly, can snowboard 4-5 days in a row and bodyboard when I can (the latter definitely loads the knee the most in some moves). All in all coping pretty well.

Contrary to some of the advice here a complete ACL rupture is a big deal and if it were me I would want it sorted ASAP. The implications further down the line are potentially pretty severe so anything you can be doing to help yourself now for the long term can only be a good thing. Bug the GP and get the opinion of a surgeon ASAP

I ruptured mine 9 years ago snowboarding. I had the surgery to get it repaired (hamstring graft) in 2006 and in 2010 it ruptured again. My current specialist has refused to do a further surgery so I have been left without an ACL.

I still ride without issue, although the biggest thing that holds me back is confidence in the joint so I spend more time on the road bike getting the miles in than any kind of off road stuff. I don’t wear a brace all the time but have a couple of incidents a year where the joint gives way which usually leads to me wearing a simple brace for a couple of days afterwards.

Most of my other activities I have given up completely (surfing, snowboarding, kiting) due to knee instability but cycling has been fine.

DanW – Member
Contrary to some of the advice here a complete ACL rupture is a big deal and if it were me I would want it sorted ASAP. The implications further down the line are potentially pretty severe so anything you can be doing to help yourself now for the long term can only be a good thing. Bug the GP and get the opinion of a surgeon ASAP

POSTED 21 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

There are no implications further down the line, once it’s broken it’s broken! You cant make it worse! If you can get the knee moving and strengthened with the right physio / doctor / exercise, there is nothing to suggest you can’t function as you did before WITHOUT surgery!

Just a comment in response to @Lucien and some others above. As I said Ive had no ACL for 30 years in my left knee. It is not “normal” it was never as strong again as the good one. It does have a degree of instability (it kind of wobbles sometimes and you can feel its not properly connected) and I cannot risk it in football and certainly couldn’t play rugby anymore. Cycling is however in a single plane, it doesn’t require twisting. I could ski pretty aggressively. However as I posted I learnt what I could and couldn’t do.

I snapped mine in my right knee 4/5 years ago. A proper horrible impact that makes me shudder even now.

I ruled out surgery on the basis of being self employed so struggled on. I could’nt kneel down on it for ages, and did subsequently tear the medial miniscus. It is the cartilage that has given the most discomfort;giving the sensation of popping out if i twist when squatting. I was offered an op two years ago but cancelled as it was the start of summer and i was riding loads and did’nt think it essential.
As long as i’m reasonably fit its been ok and cycling has been no problem.

There are no implications further down the line, once it’s broken it’s broken! You cant make it worse! If you can get the knee moving and strengthened with the right physio / doctor / exercise, there is nothing to suggest you can’t function as you did before WITHOUT surgery!

This kind of logic would say once you have broken your arm there is no further problem as you can’t break it any more. You have to consider the impact to the functional ability of the joint and the possible secondary damage you can do to the joint and surrounding structures. There is plenty of evidence to suggest you will not function the same after a complete ACL rupture- even a cursory glance at the literature and research will tell you this.

Of course you will not rupture a ruptured ACL but the likelihood of developing severe osteoarthritis within a matter of years is very high. This is a big deal to be concerned about, particularly if active. The likelihood of doing some other secondary damage to the knee even before this (such as a meniscal tear) is also pretty high if you are reasonably active. Again, a meniscal tear is a big deal and the correlation between ACL rupture/ meniscus tears and early onset osteoarthritis is very high indeed.

There will always be the lucky few who have a complete ACL rupture and suffer no obvious negative effects (such as Jambalaya’s first rupture) but this is the exception. Bug the GP, see a surgeon