Final Post of 2012

This will likely be the last blog post of 2012.  I'm planning on staying off the computer the next few days and enjoying the holidays with my family.  As I look back in 2012, many amazing things happened in the world of sports, too many to name.  One of the most remarkable and quickest recoveries from ACL reconstruction is Adrian Peterson.  Peterson tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee on December 24, 2011.  He underwent reconstruction for both ligaments only six days later in Birmingham.  The procedure was performed by Dr. Andrews.

Now, the typical rehabilitation time after an ACL reconstruction for an athlete is around 8-12 months, although this can vary, depending on the athlete, sports, and position.  While most athletes can return to competition within a year of the injury, the majority of them take around 2 years to return to their pre injury performance level.  Probably due to a combination of Peterson's athletic ability, motivation to return to play, and great work by the Vikings' sports medicine staff, he was able to return for the season opener on September 9th, a little over 8 months after his surgery.  This was remarkable considering the stress placed on the knee of a running back.  Peterson is on pace to rush for over 2,000 yards this year, a feat that has only been accomplished 6 other times in NFL history.  Peterson also has a chance to break the all time single season rushing record.  This is truly a remarkable accomplishment, and most of the credit has to go to Peterson.  The rehabilitation following ACL reconstruction is long, tough, and demanding, and for him to do what he has done less than a year after the surgery is very impressive. 

LCL sprain

Last Sunday, Robert Griffin III suffered a fairly uncommon knee injury, the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) sprain.  The lateral collateral ligament connects the femur to the fibula on the lateral (outside) part of the knee.  It is smaller and thinner than the medial collateral ligament, and it feels like a small pencil.

Most of the time in football, players are hit on the lateral side of their knee, which places a lot of tension on the medial side of the knee and can cause a MCL sprain (think about breaking a pencil, the side that is getting longer is normally the side that breaks).  The lateral side of the knee is much more exposed which increases the number of MCL sprains.  In order to sustain a LCL sprain, a person would likely have to be hit on the medial side of the knee.  That's what happened during Griffin's injury.  As he was falling to the ground, the defender hit him directly on the medial side of the knee, causing the LCL sprain.  The LCL isn't as critical to knee stability as the other 3 knee ligaments, but for a running quarterback like Griffin, it is a bad injury.  He missed this past Sunday's game and could be out a few more weeks as the ligament heals and he goes through rehabilitation.