ACL injury???? - Burns & Injuries Message Board

Janice1033 · 09-07-2004, 06:11 PM

Hi everyone:

I usually post on the back boards but I fell off the motorcycle last night. I got my heel caught between the foot board and pipes and when I went to get off my heel stayed stuck and I twisted my knee when I went down. I felt a pop and terrible pain when it happened.

I went to emergency and the xrays showed nothing broken but the dr. said that he thought I had a ACL tear as the knee is unstable and it feels like it is going to give out when I move a certain way. Now I have some instability in my other knee which he said is sometimes normal in woman so I dont know maybe both knees are just normally like this??

My question is how do they tell if I have a torn ACL and what can they do to fix it???

Thanks to anyone who can help me I would really like to know more about this.

Take care
Janice

kehorner · 09-07-2004, 08:40 PM

An MRI will show if there is any soft tissue damage. The repair is surgical. For an ACL tear, they take a little bit of the ligament that goes from your kneecap to your shin and use that to build a new ligament in the knee. I'm not an expert on knee injuries, so I can't help you more than that. But the first step is an MRI to see what the problem is. Good luck.

feelbad · 09-08-2004, 05:09 AM

Ditto on the MRI.It is probably the best way for you to find out if there are any tears or other issues going on in the knee.Good luck,marcia

twanger · 09-08-2004, 08:11 AM

Same here. A MRI is required to determine if it is an ACL or something else, maybe a torn meniscus.

Paul38 · 09-08-2004, 08:31 AM

I tore the ACL 15 yrs ago - most of the time since I've been fine with and even played football etc. using a specially made knee-brace.

The key for me is cycling - by cycling a LOT I've kept the muscle bulk up above and below knee - when I dont cycle for a while the knee gets unstable.