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Bodyshop: ACL repair: Not just for young athletes anymore

Mark Watts is almost impossible to slow down. He wants to play golf, shoot hoops, compete in minimarathons and play racquetball.

But an old injury put a crimp in his style. Watts, 57, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 1972 playing football. He opted not to have surgery then and stayed active, but a few years ago, his knee kept giving out on him when he played basketball.

“I couldn’t live the lifestyle I wanted,” says Watts, a financial investor who lives in New Haven, Ind., outside Fort Wayne. “My wife and I have three active teenagers, and I wanted to be able to have fun with them.”

Watts is having fun again after surgery four years ago.

ACL injuries and repair are getting plenty of attention these days, partly because Tiger Woods and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady are bouncing back from repaired knees.

“It is an important stabilizing ligament in the knee and it is a very common injury, because of the forces people subject to it,” says Joseph Zuckerman, president of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

When torn or ruptured, the knee has “abnormal movements, leading to a greater likelihood of other injuries and early knee degeneration,” Zuckerman says.

Watts had a healthy tendon taken from his left knee and grafted to his right knee. “I’m not as fast as I used to be, but otherwise I’m fine,” Watts says.

Zuckerman says surgeons at one time advised only people in their 20s to get surgery, thinking older people could alter their ways of living. “Nowadays, we extend it to older age groups because people want to be active longer,” he says.

Plus, the repairs continue to improve, both in the way ligament grafts are performed and how rehabilitation is undertaken, he says. Since Watts first injured his knee, Zuckerman says, ACL surgery has changed from an invasive procedure in which a surgeon makes a long slice down the side of the knee to a “state-of-the-art” arthroscopic technique.

Still, rehab takes time — six months to a year, says Marjorie Albohm, president of the National Athletic Trainers Association.

Knee braces can be a solution, although Zuckerman warns of potential future injuries to other parts of the knee and early-onset arthritis.

“To have something surgically repaired so you can do the things you did in your 20s and 30s and 40s makes a lot of sense,” Watts says. “I can do things without any fear of repercussion.”

Janice Lloyd is a writer for USAToday.

How it’s done

Arthroscopic surgery can be done with three small incisions — for a scope, instruments and a light source — which cause less tissue damage and allow quicker healing.