I just fould out my ACL is gone. Not torn; GONE.?

Question:

Four years ago i was practising air jumps on a snowboard on a trampoline, and came down, heard a loud "POP!" and thought i'd snapped the board, looked down, and saw my leg distorted. Patellar dislocation, MRIed, slight meniscal (idk which one) tear, physical therapy, and they sent me on my way, and told me i may dislocate my knee again sometime. in that time, i've had nearly ten dislocations, and recently, what prompted me to go to the hospital was the most frequent, i had two DLs in two weeks.
Went to the hospital, got MRIed again... ACL's gone. no scar tissue, nothing.
I've heard that this is damn near impossible. That an ACL tear without scar tissue is very rare.... And I've also heard that I shouldn't be able to walk, and everyone's stressing immobilizer, but I've been walking on it just fine for four years, and i think they just missed it on my last MRI, because my ortho said it was possible, and everything fits for description.

Basically, is this really that amazing?

Answers:
Surprise - you can walk without an ACL. It is not the only thing holding your bones together. The ACL limits anterior translation of the tibia (shin bone) on the femur (thigh bone). There are many other ligaments and muscles and soft tissue surrounding the knee that keep it attached. Your hamstring muscles tend to substitute for the ACL when the ACL is ruptured/torn/gone.

Without an ACL, you may feel like your knee is unstable, especially when going down stairs or squatting. There are plenty of people who are "ACL deficient" and live normal, even active, lifestyles. However, if you really enjoy sports like snowboarding, I might recommend you speak with an orthopedic surgeon regarding the surgery. Please note that the length of rehab following an ACL reconstruction is lengthy, and it may be 6 months to a year before you are able to return to sports (depending on the sport).

By the way, the reason you don't have pain is that there is nothing there to be causing pain, right? If you don't have an ACL, it can't cause pain. The ligaments are not highly innervated. A partial ACL tear may be quite painful, but most patients with a full ACL tear don't feel any pain excluding the initial injury.

Other Answers:
Wow. Really, wow. Not a question, but I'm not going to judge on that. That IS amazing.

How can you walk without an ACL? That ligament is what keeps your knee from collapsing from under you! I would love to see that MRI!

No its not ive seen it before, several times, im a nurse by the way, the doctors only find these things amazing because they arent acctually the ones dealing with the patients hands on most of the time, it is either the PT's (physical therapists), the OT's (occupational therapists), or us nurses,or cnc staff(x ray team), they only know as much as we are able to tell them, otherwise they really only know whats in their books as far as i can see.

Yeah, pretty crazy! I had a torn ACL in 95. Had surgery and kept dislocating (destroying the ligament). I had a second surgery, cadaver graft, and still dislocate, but very infrequently now. I dont know how you can walk without an anterior ligament. If it is bearable, and you can walk, I wonder how urgent a surgery would be. I dont trust Doctors whole heartedly with referrals and recommendations, but it is pretty amazing. Good Luck!!

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I just fould out my ACL is gone. Not torn; GONE.?

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