OT: New ACL repair treatment, no surgery

This would make quite a difference for people who play sports: New Procedure May Revolutionize Torn ACL Treatment

I have heard of that stuff. Last I saw though, they had not proven it was strong enough to last. Not sure about the side effects.

The issue is that when the acl tears, it is not like paper tearing. It is like taking 100 rubber bands under tension and then cutting them. The guy that first taught me how to read knee mr described it as the acl explodes, not tears.

The video player won't play on my work browser. Does it give an indication of the recovery timetable?

Not much info there. I wonder what is the recovery time? Great news though...

In time, perhaps medicine can overcome arthritis and diminish CTE. I am optimistic!

I expect the NFL will announce there is no link between this treatment and any long term structural damage just to get ahead of the game, just in case.

Somewhere Gale Sayers is being assisted so that he can turn over in his grave...

KontradictioN said:

The video player won't play on my work browser. Does it give an indication of the recovery timetable?

Click to expand...

The internal repair takes several weeks, about 8. But the key is that you don't then need a lot of work to regain strength. In other words, it cuts down on rehab time.

I heard a while ago about preventive Tommy John surgery in MLB, that means going through surgery without the torn tendon. The reports are that the tendon gets stronger after the surgery so there were some talks about doing the surgery in advance. Did anyone also heard something about that? I'm not finding anything on the internet. Obviously there should be ethical concerns over that, as I think it would be difficult for medical boards to approve such a thing, operating someone without a real medical problem.

WinstonSmith said:

Somewhere Gale Sayers is being assisted so that he can turn over in his grave...

Click to expand...

Gale Sayers is still alive

I'm actually looking into this now. Tore my ACL in 1976 - found out about it in 1992. My leg has never been "safe" but got muscularly stable enough for street hockey, ice hockey, basketball (kind of) and softball for all these years. This looks really promising for someone like me.

You might wanna modify the title of the thread. There is surgery involved, it is simply much less invasive.

WinstonSmith said:

Somewhere Gale Sayers is being assisted so that he can turn over in his grave...

Click to expand...

Not sure if you are joking but I don't think Gale has passed away.

WinstonSmith said:

Somewhere Gale Sayers is being assisted so that he can turn over in his grave...

Click to expand...

"I'm not dead yet!" - Gale Sayers

I can't see the video, but is it this story? It seems extremely promising from what I can tell in the article.

Children's Hospital develops new surgery that could revolutionize knee repairs - The Boston Globe

I'm sorry, apparently Ted Wells did an investigation by watching Brian's Song, asking Exponent the life expectancy of someone who is supposed to be dead, and calling a number from a 1992 phone book listed to Sayers, getting no answer and concluding Gale Sayers is more likely than not dead.
Sayers appealed to Roger Goodell, who upheld the death. Sayers testified that his presence refuted the more likely than not standard, and Goodell concluded that refusing to answer a phone known to have once belonged to him means that Sayers was the leader of a scheme to confuse the NFL about his life or death, and found his testimony that he was alive to not be credible.
Goodell upheld the NFLs penalty of burial.
Sayers has appealed and hopes for a stay from burial while the court hears his case. Lester Munson was quoted as saying Sayers has an uphill battle because the Commissioner has unlimited power as arbiter and you cannot expect any judge to overturn his ruling because it must be paid special deference.

The league has not commented on the rumor that they are investigating the Patriots for being behind Sayers attempt to trick the league into believing he is alive, and hope to conclude the investigation in time to take away a pick in this year draft.

varjao said:

I heard a while ago about preventive Tommy John surgery in MLB, that means going through surgery without the torn tendon. The reports are that the tendon gets stronger after the surgery so there were some talks about doing the surgery in advance. Did anyone also heard something about that? I'm not finding anything on the internet. Obviously there should be ethical concerns over that, as I think it would be difficult for medical boards to approve such a thing, operating someone without a real medical problem.

Click to expand...

At some point in the future, I'm sure that a repaired knee will be an "upgraded" knee that will be much better for sports than the crap we were born with. The human knee is not well designed unfortunately.

any news about something called "pecker-hab"? oh wait, they got pills for that...nevermind

Hmm the video cuts off at 0:12 seconds for me

WinstonSmith said:

Somewhere Gale Sayers is being assisted so that he can turn over in his grave...

Click to expand...

Tom, as others have said, Gale hasn't quite passed... yet.

Mike the Brit said:

I can't see the video, but is it this story? It seems extremely promising from what I can tell in the article.

Children's Hospital develops new surgery that could revolutionize knee repairs - The Boston Globe

Click to expand...

Yes, indeed. That is what the video was about.