Zach, 11yrs old, both knees have torn ACL's.....

by Melinda
(Marietta, GA)

My son Zach started his second season of Football (6th grade) this past August and on his 2nd day of practice his left cleat got stuck during a tackle and he felt his knee "pop". He didn't feel the usual pain of an ACL tear and the swelling was minimal, but the next morning we decided to have it looked at b/c he was limping. After the first MRI, it was confirmed that the left knee was torn, but the Dr. felt something was just not right about the other knee. So, we had an MRI on that one and again got the bad news that the right knee was torn too! (We suspect he tore that one 3yrs ago with another football injury, but he has been playing 3yrs of travel baseball and football without any problems.)

After extensive research on ACL tears in younger kids, we knew we needed to protect his growth plates, and the traditional ACL surgery for adults was not an option for him. It is very risky to drill into the growth plates of a child his age. It could cause angular deformities of the leg and, although rare, could stop the leg from growing altogether. We ended up finding a wonderful Dr. at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta who performed the Michelli ACL reconstruction using the IT band Graft. We went ahead on OCT 8th and had his left knee repaired.

He is now one week Post-op and doing really well. Today is day 7 and he is walking around the house with crutches, but can put almost full weight on his leg. He is on no pain killers anymore, can bend his knee to 90 degrees, no bruising, and hardly any swelling around his knee. His biggest problem right now is not being able to use his quad muscle and lift his leg, but I guess that will come with time.

We do not know when we are going to repair the right knee, b/c it is not giving him any problems and seems very strong right now. I can't even think of putting him through another surgery right after this one. Mentally, I think it would be too much to start right over once we get though this. Our Dr. is leaving it up to us to decide. He said maybe we could just brace it and see how it performs when he goes back to sports. I'm hoping he will not want to play football again, but will stick with his first love, which is baseball. Our Dr. said its easier on the knees!!