Study debunks longstanding medical myth that a torn ACL can't heal

Personal trainer Danyelle Anderson ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during a kickboxing class.She was told by an orthopaedic surgeon that it wasn't possible for her ACL to heal and that a surgical reconstruction was needed.Three months later, a follow-up MRI showed her injury had gone from a grade three complete rupture, where the ligament is torn completely in half, to a less severe grade one tear, where some of the fibres are continuous.

"Everyone's heard of incidents where someone's on a waitlist for surgery with a torn ACL and they get opened up by the surgeon and then the surgeon says 'well, the ACL is healed'," Dr Filbay said. Surgical reconstruction has been viewed as the gold standard treatment, offering a more predictable outcome.

"If you watch the AFL or the rugby and someone tears their ACL and the commentator says they'll be in for surgery the next day to fix their ACL, that really filters down to society and to the public," Associate Professor Filbay said. "You certainly see continuous-looking ACLs on MRI and then you examine the person and they've got gross instability," he said."I don't have any doubts that there's healing ability of the ACL," he said.

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