Knee injury - advice and suggestions

[Tsippy]

Basically I had a bad injury a few weeks back which is a result of an injury from 7 years ago (Fractured leg - which I was unaware of until an xray after the recenty injury! - torn hamstrings and possible cruciate ligament damage).

As for the recurring injury, it occurs roughly once every couple of months and although I can usually walk on it, I am unable to drive for several days whilst it recovers. The recent incident led to me been unable to walk or move my leg at the knee (nor could I carry the weight of my foot or lift the foot to support the leg because it caused too much pain). What happens is that my leg seems to retract quickly (causing the back of the calf to touch the back of the thigh) and then releases back straight suddenly which causes extreme pain in the hamstring and knee area.

At the moment, the hospital believe that the recurring injury could be a result of my leg "locking" at the knee as it's catching on excess cartilage from when my knee repaired itself after the original injury. However I'm awaiting an MRI scan to see if there's anything else / what course of action to take.


Does anyone here have any suggestions as to what could be happening ? I don't have to be playing sport to suffer the injury reoccurance (It can happen when I am standing at work, sitting in a restaurant) although the last time was during a hockey game (which was great fun when trying to stand on the bloody ice! ). I have searched the net, chatted to several doctors but don't seem to be able to find any information on what is wrong and it's getting me down a bit :-(

Also, if the hospital decide that cutting the cartilage back is the best option, what are the typical recovery times and are there any risks to having the surgery ? (e.g can it go horribly wrong!!!)

Thanks in advance :-)

[Vron]

If your leg is collapsing in under you as you describe it sounds like you have no ACL left. Reconstruction is very straightforward and can be done as a day surgery case.

[Tsippy]

Can the leg collapse at random times? As inbetween having the problem, I can run and play sport with no problems.

Again it occurs roughly once every month or two.

[Vron]

Yes but I am not a Doctor! You need to get a referral to an Orthopaedic Consultant.

[Tsippy]

Ah cheers!

I *should* be seeing a specialist soon after having an MRI scan (again hopefully soon, heard no news of an appoinment date yet). Was just hoping for some alternative ideas as my leg problem is a right bloody pain

Thanks for the response though :-)

[Bill]

TBH if doctors who've had a look at it aren't sure what's happening then you're not going to get any answers here. If you have decent quads then they can support a knee with an ACL rupture but if your knee's been examined and no one has suggested it it's unlikely to be that as an ACL is fairly easy to assess.

Unfortunately you need to wait for the scan and specialist appointment.

[Tsippy]

Thanks, luckily my quads are quite bulky (so much so that I have issues with trouser legs ) so hopefully I'll be ok if it comes to an op :-)

I was just hoping that someone might have had experience of a similar problem (ie the leg snapping back on its own and then straightening) as I cannot find any info on it :-(

Thanks again for the responses! Hopefully get the scan date soon