Posted on 06/24/2023 1:08:55 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
A new non-surgical bracing treatment may help to facilitate healing after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture, a study has found.
The study looked at 80 people treated with the cross bracing protocol, and found 90% had evidence of ACL healing on MRI three months after ACL rupture.
People with more ACL healing on three month MRI reported better 12-month outcomes including very high return to sport rates, better knee function and quality of life.
Dr. Stephanie Filbay said it builds upon research showing that 30% of ACL's can heal with exercise-based rehabilitation, and people with ACL healing reported better outcomes than those treated with ACL surgery.
"If the benefits of this treatment are supported by a clinical trial, this could result in a paradigm shift, whereby people aim to heal a ruptured ACL rather than reconstruct it with surgery," Dr. Filbay said.
"We are now planning a clinical trial to assess whether this new treatment results in better outcomes than ACL surgery for acute ACL rupture.
"Long term follow-up is needed to determine whether healing of ACL rupture (as seen on MRI) results in better long-term outcomes including less knee arthritis in the future."
Patients with ACL ruptures were managed with the cross bracing protocol in the study which involved their injured knee being immobilized at 90 degrees in the brace for 4 weeks, and then range of motion was increased progressively until the brace was removed at 12 weeks. The research team hypothesized that holding the knee at 90 degrees could help to unite torn ends of the ACL and encourage healing.
The study involved active patients ranging from ages 10 to 58.
"In the future, the potential for the ACL to heal may be an important consideration when deciding upon surgical or non-surgical management," Dr. Filbay said.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
The Cross Bracing Protocol:
Big news for the NFL
Is there a way of altering this to work with Tommy John surgery patients? That would be a paradigm shift in MLB, just as this would be in football.
You have to wear a 90 degree brace 24x7 for 4 weeks. Not easy.
Big, if true.
There has not even been a clinical trial. This could just be some doctor raising money for his new business. There are a lot more “discoveries” than there are applied therapies.
In fact yes: that is already in the works... not universally, but some UCL patients are getting this. The recovery time is somewhere in the 50-75% range of a traditional 'Tommy John' procedure.
Doesn’t have a catchy name to it yet for UCL repair, but if you hear about somebody getting the ‘internal brace’ procedure... that’s it.
The therapy is easy to implement and publicly available for free. I even gave it to you.
You can go ahead and do the normal bad approach, or try something with no downsides and would be fully compatible with the bad approach, overall. It’s really just a tweak.
I can always count on you to babble on.
See post #8 for people having immediate success with it, in practice.
Now, babble on!
I wish this was known 40 years ago when I ruptured both. At different times thank the Lord. Still painful and showing effects today.
Boy, I don’t know. I think if you have a partial tear, this might work, but how can a complete ACL rupture repair itself? There’s no stability. You certainly couldn’t return to contact sports.
We do know, that with ruptured discs, if your wait, they heal. AT one year the outcomes are about the same as if you had surgery,
Forget about this for a complete tear.
I had a complete tear and replacement with part of the patellar tendon back in the 80s. Too late for me.
if an MRI with the knee at 90 demonstrates coapted ends, then maybe I would entertain this as possible. Don’t know if the knee can be scanned at 90?
Still, too many variations on the tear site (mid-substance, off the bone at either end) for this to make sense.
Interesting. Thanx for posting
I’d have to agree on that - a “rupture” cannot even be close to a “separation”.
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Knee scooter helps.
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