ACL Reconstruction - Retear and Rehabilitation

Dr. Sabrina Strickland of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City discusses the techniques used to hopefully prevent a retear of the ACL after surgery and the overall rehabilitation process after undergoing an ACL reconstruction.
sabrinastrickland.com

[@alexanderverhoef6911]

hello, i dont know if you check your comments but i was wondering, with a retear after a reconstruction what kind of pain and swelling is expected and what other injuries would cause instability in the knee under load while trying to pivot? thanks for the video

[@SabrinaStricklandMD]

Hello Alexander. Pain and swelling with retear is variable and dependent on mechanism of injury. You should get an MRI if there is any swelling.

[@kelseybrennan3379]

Had surgery 4 months ago for meniscus and acl (posterior lateral root). Also had an MCL tear that didn’t need surgery. 2 months later had another MRI and the acl and everything was fine, mild scar tissue forming, meniscus was still torn with partial radial tear. Twisted 2 days ago, acl graft has a tear and meniscus is completely torn with a flap hanging, suspected cyclops lesion, arthofibrosis and a few more things including my MCL tear is still grade 2. Any advise? Will I need surgery ?

[@SabrinaStricklandMD]

Hi Kelsey, You will definitely need surgery if you want to go back to cutting sports, and certainly you need a stable knee if there is a chance of repairing the meniscus. I doubt that you have arthrifibrosis if you had good range of motion before this recent fall. Finally, a torn ACL looks like a cyclops - a cyclops just means that there is soft tissue in the front of the knee joint (in the notch). It sounds like you need to rehab to get your full range of motion, and then the revision may be a bit more complicated, depending on the graft you choose and whether or not you have a lateral extra-articular tenodesis.