Injured your ACL? Wondering whether surgery is the best choice for you?
Then make sure you read this incredibly important article as I’m going to tell you exactly who needs surgery and when it should happen based on the latest research.
ACL injuries are the fear of nearly every sporting person. They tend to mean at least a year off sport and potentially surgery that will limit your ability to work as well.
Even more concerning is, based on the research, most people who have an ACL injury never return to the same level of sport even if they have surgery. Nobody wants to go through the expense of surgery, the time off work, all that rehab to ultimately not be able to play as hard as they used to in their favourite sport.
Now let’s get into it.
It’s been a long held belief that ACL surgery is the gold standard in managing an ACL injury. Unfortunately researchers have now found this to not be true. In fact the strongest predicting factor for having long term knee pain and issues after having an ACL injury is that you had ACL surgery.
The old belief that surgery stops you from getting arthritis and further damage also hasn’t really rung true in long term research studies.
The short answer is that the only people who should have ACL surgery are those who fail a structured 3-6 months physiotherapy strengthening program.
But, what is a great structured physiotherapy program?
It’s a training program that takes you all the way from limping to calf raises to squats to single leg training, jumping, hopping and ultimately running and sport. It’s pretty much the same program that you would go through if you have an ACL surgery.
However it takes a lot less time due to there being no complications of surgery with it’s swelling, immobilisation, muscle inhibition and subsequent reduced activity. It also means you don’t have to recover from a donor site like your hamstrings or your patella tendon.
For most people it only takes 3 months of physio ACL rehab to achieve what a surgically repaired ACL achieves in 9 months.
The problem is that, for whatever reason, the great physio structured rehab program isn’t either given as an option or delivered by the treating physio. At Elite Physiotherapy we have a very structured ACL rehab program that delivers great results quickly. We love being active and always want our patients to get back to doing everything they love as quickly as possible.
The big thing is… MOST PEOPLE DON’T NEED ACL SURGERY AND ULTIMATELY ARE WORSE FROM HAVING IT. It’s ultimately more expensive as you pay for the surgery plus then over 9 months of physiotherapy afterwards.
If you’d like to get these results too then click HERE to book online or give us a call on (07) 4999 9773 so we can get you back to doing what you want to do and what you love.