Torn LCL

Seanaldinho

Seanaldinho

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Has anyone here ever suffered from a torn LCL? Ive been having trouble lately with my knee. Constant pain, would give out on me occasionnally, couldn't comfortably squat more than my own weight. So I go to my doc and he does a little thing where I lay on my back and he holds my ankle then pushed on the inside and outside of knee. He did my uninjured knee first and then went to the hurt knee. He pushes to the inside, no movement stiff like the other knee. He pushes to the outside and wooo I felt my knee move farther to the side than it ever should.:yikes:

Then I heard those ominous words, "Woah, that isnt supposed to happen." :sad:

Now I am going to be making an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon/doctor. Ill get some kind of MRI and see where I am.
 
Yes, I tore a bunch in my knee skiing. You'll be offered a rehab program to leave it alone, or to have it surgically repaired. I had to repair mine as there was other damage.

I used my hamstring as new ligament source. The rehab after surgery is about 50% of long term success. Ask about anti-clotting after surgery. I had some trouble with clots, if you are over 40.
 
Well Ive had other knee injuries and regretted not having surgery because I never got full range back. Im 16 and never had surgery before but would prefer it over not healing properly again. This has been bothering me for a while now so if it wasnt too severe I should have healed up by now.


The doctor also mentioned that most of the time when you tear your LCL you also end up injuring something else.
 
Tore both ACL's. Right one volleyball, left one ski patrol. Repaired right one and not the other.

Left knee was much better later in life. Eventually knees will need replacement anyway.

Still I manage 50-75 days skiing Steamboat every year. Rehab and continued exercise is 75% of the key to success.:yesnod:

Cheers
 
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Seanaldinho said:
Has anyone here ever suffered from a torn LCL? Ive been having trouble lately with my knee. Constant pain, would give out on me occasionnally, couldn't comfortably squat more than my own weight. So I go to my doc and he does a little thing where I lay on my back and he holds my ankle then pushed on the inside and outside of knee. He did my uninjured knee first and then went to the hurt knee. He pushes to the inside, no movement stiff like the other knee. He pushes to the outside and wooo I felt my knee move farther to the side than it ever should.:yikes:

Then I heard those ominous words, "Woah, that isnt supposed to happen." :sad:

Now I am going to be making an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon/doctor. Ill get some kind of MRI and see where I am.
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Geezer's right about rehab, unless you have a torn Posterior Cruciate with it. That combination isn't good.
 
A torn lcl, pcl is a significant injury, and a lot less common than an acl. You would probably remember such an injury.

Depending on your age are you sure you don't have arthritis? Are you noticeably knock kneed? This would have more of a gradual onset compared to an lcl injury, which more likely would come from a trauma.
 
AcroBoy said:
A torn lcl, pcl is a significant injury, and a lot less common than an acl. You would probably remember such an injury.

Depending on your age are you sure you don't have arthritis? Are you noticeably knock kneed? This would have more of a gradual onset compared to an lcl injury, which more likely would come from a trauma.
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Jim, I think he hasn't had an MRI yet....... :(
 
Of course an MRI will tell, but given your description and lack of a memorable trauma, arthritis would be more likely than an lcl. Also, the first starting point should always be plain X-rays before MRI.
 
Im 16. We believe the tear started when I had an avulsion in my other knee which caused some favoring (imagine that) of my right leg (the leg with the ligament problems). So what may have been a minor tear to begin with was aggravated by my constant favoring of it and now that Im starting to get into sports and getting into shape it is becoming obvious something isnt right.

Would arthritis cause my knee to give out on me though? I know it could cause the stiffness and soreness..

I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to get X-Rays and an MRI if needed. But the appointment is not for another 2 weeks.
 
16 highly unlikely arthritis. Might have an injury to the posterolateral corner of your knee. Physical exam and MRI should confirm this. Most sports docs try to fix this acutely.
 
Sean, Jim N is an orthopedic surgeon. You really need to get to your apopintment and get good, specific advice and whatever studies he wants. There are REAL limits to what anyone can do for you over the web.

But, I'd like to know.....how "fat" is the knee right now...
 
Bruce is absolutely correct. You need to get a history and exam from an orthopaedic surgeon. Just from what you described, I remain skeptical about an LCL injury. Your orthopaedic surgeon should be able to get you going in the right direction. A two week wait is actually not that bad- there have been unfortunate times where some people have had to wait for up to three months to get in to see me, and this is not uncommon. Good luck.
 
I was just hoping to get a general idea on here and you guys have certainly provided that, thank you very much!

My knee is swollen but my knees are so messed up its hard to tell just how swollen.

Can you describe a posterolateral knee injury? How is this fixed?
 
Seanaldinho said:
I was just hoping to get a general idea on here and you guys have certainly provided that, thank you very much!

My knee is swollen but my knees are so messed up its hard to tell just how swollen.

Can you describe a posterolateral knee injury? How is this fixed?
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Sean, this is a "depends on what is injured in the Posterolateral Knee". Bone, cartilage, ligaments, all different.

For now, just elevate it, ice it when you're down, and don't miss the appointment.
 
You really need a complete history and exam, and likely then some x-rays, rather than speculate. It's difficult, but you've had the problem for a while, and in the big scheme, waiting for a week or two won't make any difference. Good luck and let us now how it turns out.
 
I tore my (lateral?) meniscus in half when I was in HS. I had surgery a few days before my 17th birthday. I'm almost 22 now and still have problems.. mostly in regards to range of motion and ability to squat for any period of time. About 6 months after surgery I was cleared to start gymnastics again (how I hurt it) and I did. I always wore a brace and even with physical therapy it took awhile to get it back to 99%. I doubt it'll ever be exactly the same. And it made the other knee work so much harder being on crutches for almost 2 months that it has suffered. Good luck.
 
I just had surgery last Monday to repair my torn ACL. I'm making sure to fully commit to the rehab.
 
OK, so first off good news. My LCL is not torn, but both my LCL and MCL are a little on the loose side.

Essentially my problem is attributed to growing to fast. I may have failed to mention I've grown 6 inches in the past 8 months or so (I'm now 5'9" 130lbs). So the doctor checked my quad strength and sure enough my quads aren't keeping up with my height and weight. So the lack of muscle is causing my knee to move around under high loads and thus the falling out and discomfort. (Would have never guessed this as I used to leg press 350. But upon breaking my leg last year I stopped working out and playing soccer year round so that complicated the issue.)

3 months of therapy and stretching along with working out for me woo.
 
Not the correct exercise for what you've got. It's a good bet the Physical Therapist gives you a huge rubber band to put around your ankles and has you do spreads all morning....
 
bbchien said:
Not the correct exercise for what you've got. It's a good bet the Physical Therapist gives you a huge rubber band to put around your ankles and has you do spreads all morning....
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The rubber bands that smell like weird stuff and plastic? YUCK. I don't miss those one bit.
 
Theraband. Comes in different colors with different tensile strengths.
 
bbchien said:
Not the correct exercise for what you've got. It's a good bet the Physical Therapist gives you a huge rubber band to put around your ankles and has you do spreads all morning....
Click to expand...

But you can still make protein shakes and pretend you're getting jacked :goofy:
 
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