Need input on PCL injury

Rparr

Rparr

Active member
This is not your average "hurr durr I think I'm hurt, diagnose me DR NS" thread.

I hurt my knee a few months ago. Insurance wouldn't let me have an MRI until I completed 8 weeks of physio. Been going to physio and my PT is pretty sure I've torn my pcl and meniscus. I am finally allowed to have an MRI june 16th (3.5 months after initial injury, fuck the medical insurance system).

The problem is, I've been reading about pcl injuries and the outlook is bleak. Some do well never getting it repaired, and some who never get it repaired have knee problems for life. The surgery looks like it's a total crapshoot as to whether it will heal correctly. I read a lot of cases of people's new PCL "sagging" months after the surgery, only for their doc to tell them there's no way to fix it short of doing the whole surgery over again. I feel like whichever route I choose I have a pretty good chance of being fucked for a very long time. I just want to ski like I used to. From what I've read online, most docs aren't even willing to do such a surgery. My knee doc is great, and I follow his directions, but even a great doc can't guarantee such a sketchy procedure will be a success.

I could hardly find anything on the internet about PCL injuries and skiing, nobody seems to hurt their PCL. If anybody who has damaged their PCL here could tell me anything about it, I would really appreciate it. I have no idea what I'm going to do, and I'm driving myself insane with the possibilities in the meantime until my MRI.
 
How did you manage to hurt your PCL?

But if you have any problems after surgery, you should sue your insurance company for making you wait 3 months
 
13431626:Vizual said:
How did you manage to hurt your PCL?

But if you have any problems after surgery, you should sue your insurance company for making you wait 3 months
Click to expand...

I was doing an octograb 360 and I had a pretty thick knee pop. A week later, I was going to sit down on a rather low seat, and my knee just gave. Popped hard and hurt like a bitch. I imagine my knee was weak for a while, and if that hadn't have done it, something else would have.
 
Wait until the MRI comes back before going full panic.

PCL is a bit of a funny one, as you say not a lot of skiers injure it - I think it's fairly well protected by the heel release of your binding, for the most part.

It will really depend on the extent of the rupture. If it's a complete one, I figure you'll be better off with a slightly saggy repair than none at all. If it's only a partial however you may be better off just leaving it alone.

This is speaking from my experience with an ACL injury - I've torn one of the 2 bundles of fibres in one knee. My orthopaedic surgeon said they could potentially do a repair but he said that if he did an ACL repair and it felt as stable as my knee did he would be pretty happy with it, and I'd be better off spending the 6 months or so that I would be rehabbing a repair on just strengthening my knee and surrounding muscles to support it better. In terms of future likelihood of injury he said that anything that would pop half an ACL would have a good chance of tearing a complete one anyway.

The biggest piece of advice I would give you is that knees take a LONG time to heal. Don't rush your recovery. Around the same time as I hurt my knee (partial ACL, MCL, minor meniscus tear) my friend tore his MCL pretty badly too. I took more or less 9 months off of anything that could potentially jar it, no skiing, no soccer, nothing like that. He gave it about 2 months and got back into it and just kept re-injuring it. 3 years down the road and I have virtually no issues with mine and he still has problems. It sucked in the short term not being able to do a lot of those things but it would suck more in the long term to have issues for the rest of your life.

Hope that helps...
 
Pcl tears are pretty uncommon because they are the strongest ligament in your knee (twice as strong as your acl). So until you get an mri don't jump to a conclusion right away even if you are pretty sure that is what it is. And just because surgery didn't work out for someone else it might be different for you. I know someone who tore their acl playing lacrosse and was back 3 months later playing again so it really all depends. Your doctor should be knowledgable enough to guide you into the right direction. If it is actually torn though id say get it fixed because even if it feels tolerable right now it could cause problems later on. Best case scenario is that its not what you think it is, I once thought I tore my acl because twisted my knee and it swelled to a large size and after about 3 weeks and a trip to the hospital it turned out to just be a sprain. Good luck with everything.
 
I really dont know much about this kind of thing but I think what you need to do is figure out what state you are in now and if you can improve it. if you work out you knee everyday and nothing bad happens thats great. Even after surgery it will take a long time. I would say wait and get better as much as you can. If you feel alright dont do the surgery. If it still sucks either live with the pain or hope the surgery works for you. Whatever it is, good luck hope you shred soon.
 
Thanks for the advice everybody. Guess I'm getting really ahead of myself, not much I can do until I get an MRI. I'm definitely going to play it safe recovering, even if it means missing the upcoming season.
 
I'm so fucking lucky. No ruptured ligaments/meniscus. I just had a big ass baker cyst in the back of my knee causing a lot of pain. That and apparently I already have arthritis in my knee. So salty that my physical therapist convinced me my pcl was damaged, I was freaking out for so long
 
I completely tore my PCL ~5 years ago landing on my knee on a hard surface. I initially knew something was wrong because I felt a pop, and had some swelling and pain, but no instability whatsoever. I figured it was my meniscus and scheduled a appt with my ortho.

Turns out it was my PCL only, and he recommended I didnt have surgery. A couple weeks of icing and I was back to normal.

PCL's are tricky to fix, and surgery is a an invasive procedure with a long recovery, for little benefit. Because your knee only bends one direction, PCL's aren't nearly as necessary as ACL's, and the limited use they have is easily compensated for my muscles. After my complete PCL tear, I never once experienced any instability, and returned to a very high level of skiing in a few weeks. To this day I haven't noticed any complications.

I would wait until you get your MRI, and get the meniscus fixed if that's torn as well. I would then look at instability and go from there. There's a very good chance you won't be unstable and can just leave it. There's also a chance you will be a little unstable, but it can be easily treated with some PT. Surgery would be my last option.
 
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