Surgery on your knee ligament

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries (ACL)

Knee injuries can occur during sports such as skiing, tennis, squash, football and rugby.

A tear in the ACL inside your knee accounts for around 40% of all sports injuries. The ACL is a tough band of tissue joining the thigh bone to the shin bone at the knee joint. You can tear your ACL if your knee and lower leg are twisted.

If the ACL is torn, your knee may become very unstable and lose its full range of movement.

When to have surgery

If your knee doesn’t feel unstable and you don’t lead an active lifestyle, you may decide not to have surgery.

Before the surgery, you may need to wait for any swelling to go down and for the full range of movement to return to your knee (three weeks). You may also need to wait until the muscles at the front of your thigh (quadriceps) and back of your thigh (hamstrings) are as strong as possible.

A physiotherapist will show you some stretches to do at home and recommend low-impact exercise, such as swimming or cycling.

Reconstructive surgery

A torn ACL cannot be repaired by stitching it back together, but it can be reconstructed by replacing it with a tendon from another area of the leg, such as the hamstring.

ACL surgery fully restores the functioning of the knee in more than 80% of cases, but you may still have some pain, swelling, knee weakness and stiffness.

Recovery

Recovering from surgery usually takes around six months, but it could be up to a year before you’re able to return to full activity.