Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair

Restoring stability to your knee

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair surgery is a procedure designed to fix a torn ligament in your knee. The ACL is a crucial band of tissue that helps maintain stability in the knee joint. When it becomes torn, you may experience a wobbly feeling or instability in your knee.

During the ACL repair surgery, the surgeon replaces the damaged ligament with a piece of tendon, which may be harvested from another part of your body or obtained from a donor. This new tendon serves as a scaffold, allowing new ligament tissue to grow and stabilise the knee over time.

After your Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair, you will work closely with physical therapists to regain strength and mobility in your knee, facilitating a return to your normal activities.

Who is a Candidate?

• Patients with a torn or ruptured ACL, typically confirmed by MRI or clinical tests
• Usually those with knee instability, recurrent giving-way episodes, or high functional demands (e.g. athletes)
• Often younger, active patients; less commonly older or low-activity patients unless instability is significant.

Recovery Timeline

Will vary with provider

• Hospital stay: Often day surgery or 1-night stay
• Early recovery: Weight-bearing with crutches immediately or as tolerated; knee may be braced
• Rehabilitation: Physiotherapy begins within days to restore range of motion and reduce swelling
• Return to daily activities: 4–6 weeks for most basic activities
• Return to sports: 6–12 months depending on graft healing, strength, and neuromuscular control.

Benefits

• Restores knee stability, reducing episodes of giving way
• Allows return to sport and high-demand activities
• Reduces risk of secondary meniscus or cartilage damage
• Improves confidence and functional mobility.

Risks

• Surgical risks: infection, blood clots, bleeding, nerve injury
• Graft-related: failure, re-rupture, or stretching
• Stiffness or loss of motion
• Persistent pain or instability
• Donor site complications.

This is just an outline. Your specialist orthopaedic surgeon will be able to talk to you about these issues in more detail and make sure that there is informed consent.