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TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR ACL SURGERY
MARC
DARROW, M.D.
When
faced with the ACL treatment decision, a patient will usually weigh two options,
surgery or no surgery. There are a lot of opinions offered as
to which path the patient should take. Every ACL injury is unique to the
patient, so this question is best asked of your physician and better yet, a
second opinion physician. ACL surgery is an elective surgery and many athletes
have chosen not to have it.
If the no surgery alternative is chosen, then the patient will then try to
determine a course of action that will allow them to continue running or
participate in other sports. Generally, you will know if you can run on your
damaged knee or not by the amount of knee strength you still have and the level
of pain you experience. Because the ACL is mostly used in supporting the knees
in movement such as those found in playing tennis and basketball, (jumping,
quick stopping, fast change of directions), these activities are usually stopped
for fear of further damage. For the most part, many ACL damaged individuals are
able to continue running or jogging and participating in certain sport
activities.
Another option
Unfortunately doing nothing to a damaged ACL can also lead to physical problems
later. Studies have shown that left untreated, knee weakness, arthritis, and
other structural damage that may lead to a need for
knee replacement may occur.
Of course, in this situation, running will no longer be an option.
A very conservative treatment we specialize in is
Prolotherapy because it works on most
knee problems
with excellent results.
Prolotherapy
is a simple
injection of
dextrose and a local
anesthetic, like those used in dentistry work. What the dextrose does is start a
very small
inflammatory response in the body.
Inflammation
kicks up the immune system, the immune system brings up fibroblasts which are
small cells that produce
collagen.
In other words the collagen metabolism spoken of before is stimulated. A few
injections is of course a lot less invasive than surgery, not to speak of the
rehabilitation effort following surgery in comparison.
Only in the case of a completely torn
ligament is
Prolotherapy somewhat limited. If there is a partial tear (sometimes on
MRI these may look like complete tears) Prolotherapy maybe
able to reconstruct the ligament and strengthen the joint. But even with a
complete tear, Prolotherapy is extremely beneficial because an impact with
enough force to completely rupture a ligament will also loosen the entire knee
structure. Prolotherapy in this situation can strengthen the surrounding tissues
giving the patient a better chance of long-term success.
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