cruciate ligament rupture

[steved]

I'm in a big dilemma. I'm slowly recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, a torn medial ligement, damaged cartilage and torn calf muscles in a skiing accident 6 weks ago. I can now ride my bike relatively painfree and am walking without a limp. My surgeon however questions whether I'm going to get sufficient stability back in the knee, without surgery, to withstand the descents in fell running.
My priorities are obviously to never ski again !!! and get back into running on the fells.
I suspect at the end of the day the decision on whether I have the ACL reconstructed or not will be mine.

Has anyone been in this situation or similar?

I'd be really grateful to receive any advice on this

Cheers
Steve

[ben]

Steve, you have managed to complete what is known as O'Donaghues Unhappy Triad of injuries!
The ACL resists forward displacement of the shin from underneath the thigh bone. Reconstuction either with a piece of hamstring tendon or part of your patella tendon will mechanically replace this function. But - the other function of the ACL is to send a huge amount of information about body position in world (proprioception) to the brain, so that the brain can plan the next stage of movement. An ACL deficient knee doesn't sned as much info therefore your brain is essentially working in the dark when it is planning movement and movement correction. This is very importnat for running on un even terrain!
Having said that there are about 15% of the population who are ACL deficient not through trauma and suffer no functional restriction. Also with a dedicated propriceptive training programme (sigle legs stand, balance boards, juggling while on one leg, hops onto and off cushions, all of the above with and with out eyes closed!) the proprioceptive lag can be minimised.

best of luck
Ben

[steved]

Thanks Ben. It seems as though I'll have difficulties with proprioreception whether or not I have the ligament reconstructed. I've lots of happy memories of wobble boards and spongy cushions when recovering from a bad ankle sprain a couple or years ago.

Cheers

[bvb]

Just seen this thread. Had a similar injury myself 22 years ago when playing rugby at university. Took me 6 months to get the pot off and then a further 6 months of intensive physio to get back to full fitness (although I never played rugby or football again). Whilst I get some arthritis on cold days, I've never had a problem with stability in the knee on the fells (the only problem has been a lack of ability). What I do find is that i get loads of niggling injuries down that side of my body - back, hamstring, calf, ankle. You should be OK providing you work hard on building the strength of the quadriceps.