Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and reconstruction
Tony is a professional AFL footballer. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a finals match and had a patella tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction a few days later. One of his cartilages was torn but we were able to repair it with the new bioabsorbable 'arrow' tecchnique where little absorbable nails are fired into the cartilage using a device like a nail gun. This holds the torn cartilage in place while it heals.

Tony had a successful rehabilitation program although his club delayed his return to AFL football for nearly 12 months to be absolutely sure the knee was ‘right’. He was very motivated and worked extremely hard to regain strength and was very patient waiting for his wound and graft site tenderness to settle. He has now played nearly 2 seasons of AFL football successfully and is high on the goal-kicking list. He regards his knee as ‘normal’. Without the operation his AFL career was over.

Recent results published in the Journal of Arthroscopy (March 2001) prove conclusively that patients having their ACL reconstructed using patella tendon have a 20% higher chance of return to sport than with using the hamstring tendons.