Gabrielle: Hello! My name is Gabrielle Arrington from Atlanta, Georgia and my question is how soon should I have my ACL operated?
John Xerogeanes: Gabrielle, it's a very interesting question when you say, when should I have my ACL reconstructed after injury. The most important thing is, it's not a time parameter, its how your knee looks.
So in other words, the most important thing is, can you get your knee perfectly straight, can you bend it to 90 degrees and is it cool? If you have a warm knee that's stiff, you are not ready for surgery. When I was working in Valle, Colorado, when we had people get injured on the hill, the first thing we did was get them on the exercise bike. They get immediate motion of their knee, it's prevents swelling, it pumps any swelling that they do get and they are out and we could operate on them almost immediately.
Oftentimes, when you see your orthopedist after a weekend injury, your three days are out, you have a stiff knee, then you need to have physical therapy and you are usually able to get surgery as soon as, anywhere from three to five days after.
But the most important thing again is not time. It's important to know that you can wait as long as you want to have your reconstruction, as long as you are continuing strengthening, and you are modifying your activities, you don't do many cutting or twisting activity where your knee could pop-out on.
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