What is ACL Surgery?

The ACL, or Anterior Cruciate Ligament, is one of several ligaments that stabilize your knee. If you've injured or completely torn your ACL, you may experience your knee "giving out" when you need to quickly change direction.

At Children's Hospital Colorado, our orthopedic surgeons and Sports Medicine Team specialize in treating ACL injuries in children, teens and adults; they can offer several options to reconstruct your ACL. We also help guide young athletes through their post-surgery rehab to get them back up to speed. With time and patience, you can recover from your ACL injury and get back to the sports and activities that you love.

[zu]

Tore my acl and both meniscus august 10 2020, had surgery May 26 2021 after 9 and a half months of excruciating pain and absolutely no life other than working in a kitchen that only hurt it more. It’s august 18 2021 i made it a quarter into the video and started crying uncontrollably. I’m 24, I hope I can run again. I used to be so fast, so strong and capable. May Allah give me and all of you strength to overcome this battle . I don’t consider my rehab to be rehab, I consider it fighting for my life and fighting to be who I once was

[antonioloera]

It’s crazy how a tear to the knee can change your life

[blurkia]

For those who are still undecided to go for surgery, my advice is to go for it. I did the surgery back in 2010, 13 years have past, and i've been enjoying every moment of it being able to play football again. Yes, it's never 100% again, perhaps about 80ish %. Well, that's good enough for me.

[carolinacisneros]

7 years since my acl surgery. My knee never fully recovered to were I was as an athlete. I still run and lift weights but every exercise activity has to be modified in order for me not to push my knee too hard. Remember to strengthen the muscles around the knee and incorporate rehabilitation exercises to assist in knee pain that could arise. Every now and then when I do decide to push my operated knee too hard it swells up and feels weak to were I need to take a 2-3 rest day and then I am good to resume my exercises. I am currently 24 but I do suspect I have developed some sort of arthritis in that knee as I have fluid buildup and can especially feel it when I bend the knee. Also take care of your knee in the cold as per my experience it will hurt or have a ringing feel to it and can even lock up to were you might need to sit down and slowly twist it around for it to have a pop feel to it. Hope this helps someone!

[luisriba]

I had mine last year 2022. Normally from 0-3 months when you have the surgery you got to let the leg heal. From 3-6 start working more on your exercises and stretches. From 6 to 9 months you should be able to walk at least, bike and move around. However, you'll be struggling with a lot of weakness on your muscles because you lose all your muscle from the surgery. The hardest part in my case is getting to full knee extension.

[leemar]

Hi, i just want to say thanks for all of your ACL videos. I did my ACL last year when playing Rugby and got surgery. Your videos helped me a lot.

[maliadiawara]

I tore my ACL all the way through like what the video just showed, tore my meniscus, and fractured my tibia.Not the best situation at all.And plus my 16th birthday is about to come up in June.A milestone birthday so this is not fun for me. Keep your head up for anyone going through this🌟💫⚡️💪💪💪💪💟☮️🔯❤️💖❣️💜

[harshavardhanreddy]

Tomorrow i have an acl initially I don't know what they r going to do tmrw. ..but after seeing this am understanding the u for uploading this r many patients don't know about their surgeries....I will prefer these videos to u from India 😍🇮🇳

[jeylenlevy]

This looks worse than I thought I already know the pain is bad but seeing it tear like that

[patrickstarfish]

Imagine D. Rose having to go to surgery multiple times and rehabbing. Mad respect for him

[tejasasank]

Even watching this is causing me pain in my knees .

[donjoel]

Fascinating. Thank you doctors and researchers for this. Hope to bring more awareness to it here in Southern Africa.

[danielemmendorfer]

I tore my ACL about a month ago. Did an MRI and rehab and yesterday a surgeon told me that he will perform this exact surgery on me in about a month.
I am hyped! Sure it is going to suck for at least a year but i have no daubt in my mind that i will be back on the mats.

[AwaisKhan-mhcd]

ahh! next week im going to take the surgery
hope it goes well

[chandershekhar]

Whoever watching this video don't take it lighty because the same thing happened with me and I'm not able to Run Fast and My Hockey career is Finished at 20 😔

[gubranalmekhlafi]

This is day 3 after ACL surgery.
So fare so good.

[jonathancassel]

Im 9 days post op. Went awesome. Very thankful its an option!
Have been in hardly any pain. I can make pain if i do certain things but if i am responsible and rest correctly its fine, no meds needed. Had a few neurofin just on odd days to help some swelling and sleep i guess. I crutched out of the hospital but have walked without crutches ever since. Can bend 120 atm and nearly going straight. Went for a cheeky bike ride today. Felt awesome to be out and about as i did spend 6 weeks in a ROM brace to heal the mcl first haha.
Am able to go out for dinner and have my social life.
But life goes on.
Face it head on i say.
I really struggled mentally when i did the injury initially, because i was playing sport and running multiple times a week then all of a sudden - nothing. But i learnt to not play the victim. And to stay positive. Thank God its a treatable injury. Alot worse can happen to ya!
I got lots of prayer also and stayed in my bible. People will say that means nothing but my testimony is what it is. And i have to mention all of what i did to be fair.

There are plenty of good testimonies out there! Im exciting to get into some good rehab now.

All the best to anyone on this journey. It has made me stronger to be honest.
Every storm ends.
One step at a time!

[jackxiao]

man i am scared, the idea of taking this surgery troubles me already, but seeing this vid.. i am going to have nightmares

[Aharris-kinc]

just had mine today, pain is crazy, and I’m pretty good at handling pain. and the other thing is that the anesthesia in the area hasn’t completely gone away yet so the pain is gonna get worse

[brittanyulate]

I love these videos like this!
Can u please post more and more recently I love the information it gives me