Can you retear your acl after surgery

Engaging in too many activities can impede this process. Another critical factor involved in preventing re-injury to your ACL is addressing any issues with neuromuscular weakness, which could have very well been the cause of the problem in the first place.

Some athletes have good neuromuscular control with strength and stability in their body, while others do not. Correcting any issues with neuromuscular control can mitigate the possibility of re-injury.

There are some factors related to the risk of re-tear after ACL surgery that are outside of your control, such as gender and age. Subsequently, your surgeon and therapist must consider any factors that are specific to your situation when developing a plan of care. So, can you tear your ACL again after surgery? Yes, but there are ways to prevent this from occurring, and you should consider all of the ways discussed.

The best way to prevent ACL re-tearing is to choose a highly skilled surgeon like Dr. Hackett for your procedure. He can successfully repair the ACL and discuss ways to prevent a future tear.

Can you tear your ACL again after surgery? Proper rehabilitation after ACL surgery is critically important to the success of the reconstructive surgery. Not only must the new graft become a part of your knee, a process called graft incorporation, but you need to restore normal muscle strength to ensure the knee is well protected.

Graft incorporation times may vary, but most surgeons recommend protecting the knee for a minimum of six months after surgery using autograft your own tissue or nine months after allograft donor tissue surgery. When the new ACL is positioned in the knee joint it is typically held in place with an implant.

These implants come in many shapes and sizes buttons, screws, posts , and some are made of metal while others dissolve. However, all of these implants are just holding the graft while your body incorporates the tissue so that it becomes your new ACL. That process takes time, and doing too much activity, too soon in your rehab, can lead to damage or re-tear of the graft. The other important factor following surgery is regaining normal muscle function of the entire extremity.

We know that many ACL tears are the result of poor neuromuscular control of the extremity ; these are the words used to describe the stability of movement of the body. Some athletes have excellent neuromuscular control—their body is always in a strong, stable position, no matter what movement they are making. Other athletes have poor neuromuscular control, and their body gets into positions that increase the chance of injury, such as tearing the ACL.

Part of recovery from surgery is to correct any issues of neuromuscular weakness that may have led to the initial ACL injury and may prevent the chance of future injury. Return to play assessments, to confirm the athlete has regained enough strength and stability to return safely to playing sports, can be an important part of the recovery process to minimize risk of a second injury.

There are some aspects of ACL surgery and the risk of re-tear that you can't do much about. For example, younger people and those returning to high risk sports involving cutting and pivoting have a higher chance of re-tear of their ACL after reconstructive surgery. Athletes under the age of 25 who return to playing sports have been shown to have a particularly higher chance of re-tear of their ACL than others.

As mentioned, there is not much you can do about factors such as your age or sport,, but your surgeon and therapist should be extra aware of these situations where a young athlete may be at a particularly high risk for re-injury to their ACL and adjust their rehab accordingly. The idea is to take the information about risk factors and adjust the variables that you can control to minimize the possibility of re-injury to the ACL. The bottom line is to know if there are aspects of your recovery that put you in a position of the increased chance for re-injury to your new ACL.

If you are at higher risk for re-injury of your ACL, make sure your rehab is optimized to ensure that everything you do is focused on preventing another ACL tear. There are other factors that may also influence the risk of re-injury to the ACL that need more investigation including the sport and position played, the aggressiveness of the athlete, and the amount of contact that occurs.

These are hard to measure and therefore hard to study, but they may also be important in understanding the risk of injury. Dealing with joint pain can cause major disruptions to your day. Sign up and learn how to better take care of your body. Click below and just hit send! Risk of secondary injury in younger athletes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Sports Med. This looseness laxity impacts your retear risk.

You will need this information to interpret your retear risk. Your surgeon will determine in pre-surgery evaluation whether you have normal or high-grade laxity of your knee. When comparing graft types using the ACL retear risk calculators, use the absolute difference.

That is, subtract the lower number from the higher number. How much difference in retear risk is significant? When the absolute difference between retear risks is:.

Many surgeons no longer use allografts where the graft comes from a cadaver in young patients. Allografts are three times more likely to retear than autografts.

This difference is significant for those 22 and younger. Every competitive athlete younger than their mid-twenties should elect ACL reconstruction using autograft with a replacement ligament from your body.

For those in their mid-twenties and older, the gap between the two methods becomes so small that it is insignificant. And those older than their mid-twenties suffer fewer ACL retears overall. Research so far provides no conclusive reason for this. Regardless of graft method and source, you can reduce your risk of a repeat ACL tear by 40 to 60 percent.

By completing a MOON Knee evidence-based rehabilitation program coupled with return-to-sport training. The MOON knee research program and rehabilitation guidelines are funded by federal grants, distributed at no cost and widely used. All ACL reconstruction surgery patients should fully complete their rehabilitation and training programs before resuming normal activity and especially when returning to a sport.

Talk with Your Doctor Calculate your expected failure based on the risk calculators and discuss with your doctor the advantages and disadvantages of each autograft type for you. In allografts , the graft is taken from one of those locations on a cadaver. On This Page.

ACL Graft Choices? What Data Do You Enter? How Much Difference Matters?