Doctors in the house; help me out… To my knowledge, the fact that it’s a partial tear in the ACL is meaningless. You can’t surgically repair the ACL if it’s only partially torn, you’d just need to replace the ligament if it’s partially or fully torn. I’m not certain on that, but that’s what I recall from my own knee-related conversations.
That is my understanding also. The repair for a partially torn ACL is the same as a fully torn ACL. You replace the ligament. The ACL does not regenerate and heal itself.
Correct about the surgery for a partially torn ACL being the same as for a fully torn ACL; you replace the remnants with a graft.
But a partially torn ACL might not require surgery. The ACL
can in fact regenerate and heal itself if it’s not too torn.
Even if a decent healing process takes place, restoring the gaps in the ligament, surgery might still be indicated – if the ligament is so overstretched that the joint is unstable.
