[Closed] Knee ligament damage

Don't accept that diagnosis. It's all far too vague. Get a GP appointment and demand an MRI, it's the only way to really tell what you've done. Getting the right diagnosis and treatment is very important, as you are posting here I assume you are fairly "sporty" so get it looked at. IMO your GP will be a generalist and you need an MRI and that looked at by a knee specialist

Right now I would ice ice ice your knee. Go and buy one of those packs that go in the freezer and use it multiple times a day. Yes rest and elevate for a few days (to get swelling down) but you need a diagnosis and some proper physio. Good luck.

FWIW I have totally broken the ACL in both knees and some meniscus damage in one knee.

Sadly plenty on here have bad knee experience, there are lots of thread and hopefully others will be along with advice

Yep had complete ACL tear. Took me 18 months to get back in to football, but I was back MTBing within 10 months. Probably not the timescale you were wanting to hear.

MRI def push for. A&E just took an x-ray which would not show damage and even the Dr missed the damage. Apparently they do a kind of knee click test!

Just ice up and rest if it is swollen?

I'd avoid the bike until you know for sure. I just had some ankle weights and just did some knee exercises, but a little at a time. best thing I did was go and see a physio, they gave me a contraption that strapped around my knee and a pipe led in to a barrel that contained ice and water. Worked wonders as you could have it on longer than an ice pack.

so. Book GP and book a private physio in the mean time.

Heal up soon

If your acl is snapped a good physio will be able to tell with a reasonable margin of error by looking at joint stability. Swelling will need to be down though. So ice it, see a physio and in the meatime pudh gp to tefer to a knee specialist an get on the list for an mri.

I'm a physio who sees a lot of knee injuries. I have given up trying to figure out what ligaments people have damaged. There are a number of tests that we can do to figure out what structures have been damaged, but at best they have something like 60% accuracy and similar levels for specificity. This means that a positive test means bugger all.

For example, my knee only tested positive for lateral and medial meniscus damage, but the MRI showed that I also had ACL, PCL and MCL damage along with it.

My advice would be to try and strengthen your knee and get some stability and control back into it - do that for a few weeks and if it's not cleared up by then go down the ortho referral route.

Mine tested negative for all ligament damage through normal knee manipulation, and through the ACL stretch test by machine.
Had MRI and it was completely destroyed. So I'd definitely suggest getting it looked at further.
Even if that involves paying for a second opinion.

Recovery time is pretty long if it's ACL, had a repair done with hamstring graft. Was back on flat cycling after about 4 months, MTB a month after but hockey took till month 10-11!

Thanks guys, need to see gp for sick note for work who kindly provide private health care so will push for a referral. Booked the private physio as though id better get proper diag now swelling is going down. Thankfully car is auto, left knee damaged, so I can get to medics as required.

I shredded my knee ligaments playing rugby when I was younger. I had to wear a knee brace for 6 months. Took longer than that to get back to full fitness

As others have mentioned, get to your GP and ask to see a specialist. I did as I didn't trust my original vague diagnosis. My suspicions proved correct, as the original diagnosis turned out to be a load of old crap! I'm glad I did! As the treatment I received was somewhat different, and u saved myself from a proposed operation which not only wouldnt have helped, but could actually have made things worse!

Good luck with it. It's frustrating but you need to be patient

Snapped acl here .. Hamstring was harvested and screwed/fixed in to replace acl .. 6 months of physio(twice a week at knee class)

Got full strength back(biodex machine test) been fine now 10 years 🙂

Was still riding whilst waiting for op .. few weeks after injury

I popped my anterior cruciate.
After the swelling went down I was able to walk ,however whenever I twisted/turned the knee I would end up on a heap on the floor.
It hurt.
As you have work health care ,happy days ,use it to see knee specialist , who will diagnose MRI and physio.
It may be worth checking with your insurance how much outpatient "credits" you have. You could very easily use them all up doing physio when you will need alot more if the consultant recommends
surgery to repair......

If you have private health care get an MRI scan.

Mrs R heard something 'snap' in hers when a dog knocked her over. MRI scan a week later after the swelling had gone done showed exactly what the situation was and helped with deciding what to do.

It used to be repair asap but more recently advice seems to be work on strengthening it and let it properly stabilise. Only do the repair if you need it - you can wait years with no negative effects.
She has been able to do gentle hill walks but it quite good at her exercises and being careful so operation may not be needed for her to do the things she wants to do. It does mean any aspirations of being a professional footballer would be gone 🙂

Thanks for input.
Saw physio who had feel, pull, twist etc and as knee not fully straightening he recommended seeing consultant who had a feel, pull, twist etc and pointed out muscle wastage in injured leg, sent me for MRI scan. It's now back confirming large tear in cartilage that requires keyhole surgery to tidy up. Saying 2weeks off work(mechanic), I didn't even ask about bike etc. provisional booked for Tuesday, very apprehensive/cacking it a bit but know it needs done soon as family holiday in July is coming fast.
Ahhhh bollock$

Alright mate, I had my cartilage operated on in October 2013 and was back training for rugby again within 5-6 weeks. Played my first competitive game in the January following. One of the other lads had the op and was playing again in 4 weeks so I think it varies.

I don't feel as though I rushed back or anything and it felt completely fine when I started training again. I think I was back on the bike in about 2-3 weeks. The main thing for me was getting the swelling down after the op. I think they fill the knee with fluid in the op and it took ages to get rid of it all!

Hi Pacer - I feel for you as I did something similar last week.

I've had a bit of an ache at the back of my knee for some months which I thought might be a bike-fit issue - or the fact I throw myself around the squash court 4-5 times a week playing people 1/2 my own age.

Well last week in a hard squash game the wheels fell off! Extreme pain in my knee & unable to move off on that leg or twist the leg. I hobbled off & limped home.

Saw the doc the following day & after some rudimentary teats she diagnosed cruciate damage / meniscus tear. Luckily she has referred me to a knee clinic for MRI scan but the earliest appointment is in 5 weeks time. After a week the pain has died down & I can walk on it again - but still can't twist my knee. Strangely enough I cycled to the docs as it was less painful than walking.

I'm desperate to get back & do some exercise again (squash / cycling) but can't really risk further injury until it's all healed up.

Hi Pacer-I've had 3 knee surgeries - 2 cartilage arthroscopy and 1 ACL + cartilage - on the first 2 I didn't do what was asked of me post op and the post op care wasn't great and I suffered because of that. However after the 3rd op, done in Bristol, I did everything that was asked of me by the physio and the post op care was class. The difference this made was huge.
My advice is that it is imperative you do the post op exercises and the preop exercises until you're blue in the face. Things like leg extensions with a towel under your knee, glute work, hamstring strengthening and proprioception work etc. I'm sure the exercises have come on in the last 7 or so years since I had mine done but I'm sure you'll get sorted.

Arthroscopy carried out Tuesday 9am walking, using bannister, up and down stairs by 2pm. leg now straightening properly, hamstring and behind knee slightly tight, light stretches working and slight nippiness at wound points prob more down to dressings pulling hairs out when bending leg, only roadies shave their legs, right?

Not using any pain relief and actually in less pain than Tuesday 8am.

I'm waiting on the sucker punch coming but doing the post op exercise program with elevation and ice every 2/4hrs seems to working, actually thought about a short turbo/cross trainer session this afternoon but told myself to get a grip there's plenty of time for that.

Hope this is of benefit to anyone worrying about their own knee issues/future surgery.

Fingers crossed it wont be that bad a recovery , I started cycing again last year after my 3rd knee opp , 2 arthoscopys and one ACL opp /rebuild , years off football abuse ,but after being on a bike for the past 12 months my knee has never felt stronger ,so speedy recovery ,you will be back out in know time , you never now Sram might have released the 1x12 by then 🙂