Do you know anything about THERMAL SHRINKAGE of an ACL?!
Question:
Do you know anything about THERMAL SHRINKAGE of an ACL?
Last December I was playing basketball and felt my knee shift when I did a layup. I went to the doctors and they didn't find much of anything wrong. I went through two weeks of physical therapy and began playing again. About a week later I landed awkwardly on my leg, twisting my knee. I went for MRIs and they told me I partially tore my ACL and tore my meniscus. The doctor told me what he would do was arthroscopic surgery with thermal shrinkage. This means he would take what was left of my ACL and shrink it, to make it tighter and supposedly stronger. After the surgery I spent 6 weeks in a knee immobilizer, then had 2 or 3 weeks of physical therapy. Now almost 5 months after surgery (Feb) my knee still doesn't feel right. When I twist or turn certain ways it feels stiff and like it might pop. I don't know if the shrinkage didn't work right or not. I also play tennis, which is starting soon, and I'm not sure how my knee will hold up. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Answers:
Thermal shrinkage is only a temporary solution. What happens is that over time the damage done to what was left of your ACL to shrink it breaks the ACL down and eventually most ALL of these surgeries fail. I would recommend you find a different surgeon to do a reconstruction of you ACL. Any surgeon that feels that thermal shrinkage is a viable option for active people really is not up to date on the current thinking in the sports medicine community. Best of luck.