For reasons not entirely clear to me, the response of many patients to a diagnosis of ACL rupture is heavier and more emotional than it is to other sports injuries; I don’t usually see the sadness (sometimes even tears) among my patients who have patellar dislocations, collateral ligament injuries, or even tibial plateau fractures that I do when I break the news to a patient that (s)he has an ACL injury. Perhaps they have a picture in mind of someone like Olympic skier Lindsay Vonn, whose recovery was something of a hero’s journey. Although I usually can get my patients comfortable with the diagnosis of an ACL tear, good surgical results are not guaranteed. In fact, the odds of having some difficulty after ACL surgery are in the ballpark of one out of five [3, 4].
展开▼
