After first finding an ACL healed itself, the 2nd thing I found were the BEAR trials run Boston Childrens in these two articles from 2016:
A safety study had been done on 10 patients, all reported “doing well, with knees working as well as knees treated with ACL reconstruction.” The 1st patient surgery was Feb. 2015 (> 3 yrs ago), for Corey Peak, who also tore it skiing. He concluded that it was a better option to treat a torn ACL; within 3 months post-surgery, his MRI showed that his ACL had started to naturally knit together; he was jogging on a treadmill. Soon after, cycling to work.
Bridge Enhanced ACL Repair - How it works:
When viewed under a microscope, ACLs still have active cells and blood vessels after injury. The ligament itself works hard to heal, however the synovial fluid — the lubricating substance that exists inside of all joints —washes away the blood clot that serves as the initial connection between torn tissue ends in other parts of the body.
Conventional treatment for an ACL tear involves removing the torn ends of the ligament that’s trying to heal itself, & fabricating another from a tendon graft, usually done by stripping away good tissue (hamstring or patella). Patients who had 1 injury then have to recover from 2 separate injuries—the torn ligament + the uninjured area where the graft was taken out.
Whereas a traditional reconstructions involves removing good tissue for a graft from another part of the body to fabricate an ACL, BEAR allows patients to re-grow their own ACL. This resulted in both quicker #recovery and fewer long-term complications than the traditional ACL amputation & reconstruction.
An estimated 150,000 ACL tears still occur every year in the USA. “ACL re-tear rate can be as high as 20% for teens. Up to 80% of patients develop arthritis 15-20 years after surgery.”
Given the eligibility criteria timeline, I need to figure this out fast, as I was at 38 days, and I didn’t want unnecessary ligament removal.