My ACL Tear and Recovery
ACL Recovery: When Is It Time to Lose the Knee Brace?
As to when the brace should be applied and how long it should be used, Liston says that the doctor will often tell the athlete, “I don’t care how you feel, I want you to wear the brace for 1 year postsurgery.Many of you are aware that I had ACL reconstruction surgery a couple of years ago (March 2007, to be exact). I returned to snowboarding in December 2007, and shortly thereafter started playing sports like ultimate frisbee once again. Since that time, I’ve been playing all sports, save for running and biking, with the Donjoy Defiance knee brace.
When I first got the brace, my surgeon was adamant I wear the brace for a “couple of years”. I haven’t been back to see him in quite some time, and I wish I had got some clarification on that. Counting back to the surgery date, a “couple of years” has already passed. Counting back to when I started playing sports again, a “couple of years” is still four months away. My surgeon would be the first to admit, though, he’s very cautious when it comes to bracing. I’ve encountered many people (like Andrew) who have surgeons that don’t recommend a brace.
So what’s a guy to do? This has become a conundrum for me because I want to take up soccer, and I can’t wear the Donjoy on the pitch (the league I’m playing in allows ‘soft’ braces only). To be honest, I’m really leaning toward finally losing the brace. I don’t want it to become a crutch.
In order to make sure I’m not making a stupid decision, I also consulted the wise, wise Interwebs, and came across this great article on bracing in Rehab Management (“the interdisciplinary journal of rehabilitation”). There are some very interesting nuggets in the article. Among them:
- Most doctors tell athletes (and I’m quoting from the article), “I don’t care how you feel, I want you to wear the brace for 1 year postsurgery.”
- Becoming physically dependent on a brace is actually not too bad a thing. If this happens, it’s safer to keep wearing it than get weaned off it.
- Rehab is so good these days, 90% of ACL surgery patients can expect to eventually lose their brace entirely.
Fascinating article. If you’ve had ACL surgery, you should definitely check it out.
Discussion
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Dear Adam,
As a colleage-patiënt, I had the same questions but got different answers. Yes, you should wear your brace 2 years following your surgery (during sports). Why? Here in central europe, doctors use a tendon from your other leg or from a donor.
The tendon is stronger than a ligament but does not have the same abilities yet. The healing proces does a conversion on the tendon to learn these abilities and start acting like a ligament.
This proces takes 2 years time but gives you a much stronger ligament then ever before. As long as this proces isn’t finished you risk damaging the tendon because it’s not ready and fully operational.
What can you do in the mean time? Train your knee muscles, they support half the strenght of your ligament (and can even replace them for daily use). Avoid leg torsions, that’s what caused the damage in the first place. Have a thorough warm-up and cool-down when you sport and will go well…
I had my surgery exactly a year a go and I’m now training to get back on my skies, using a trampoline to strenghten up my knee and the surrounding muscles.
Take care and “Carve Diem”
The MountainMonster
Grats on losing the brace!
My surgeon doesn’t require his patients to get a brace unless the knee is still unstable due to some other ligament. In my case, my LCL & PCL were still slightly loose when he last examined me (2 months before surgery). So if they haven’t fully healed in a month he may tell me to get one. I’m hoping against this though!
According to my all the orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists I have spoken to there is no brace that has actually been proven to help all that much with acl recovery. In the long run. Because of the size and movement of the muscles involved nothing has proven to do any better then a cheap neoprene sleeve. Go to PT or a surgeon and get an evaluation done.