Surgical Alternatives to Knee Ligament Surgery
Ross Hauser, M.D.

The complications of orthopedic surgery on knee ligaments are significant and frequent. The ligament grafts used in surgical procedures are profoundly weakened about eight weeks after surgery.

At this time their strength is about 10 percent of its initial strength! It is only 50 percent of initial strength after one year. In two to three years the grafts are at their strongest, and then, less than their initial strength.1 Compare this to one study where ligament strength was measured after a six-week period of doing Prolotherapy on knee ligaments. The results showed that in every case Prolotherapy increased ligamentous mass, thickness, and cross-sectional area as well as the ligament strength. Prolotherapy in a six-week period increased ligament mass by 44 percent, ligament thickness by 27 percent, and the ligament-bone junction strength by 28 percent.2

There are other techniques for ACL problems, including artificial grafts. These artificial grafts (e.g., Gortex) lead to particularly poor results with very high complications!3

Arthrofibrosis (a scarred, painful, stiff, knee with limited use) followed arthroscopic ACL reconstruction in 10 percent of the cases, when associated with the repair of a torn meniscus!4

In an Australian study, patients were followed up after 7.4 years. Fifty-seven percent had pain on exertion. There was an overall significant deterioration of the anterior-posterior stability of the knee, indicating a failure of the ligament graft integrity with time.5

In another study of patients followed for two to seven years after surgery, seven percent of the grafts failed and another 26 percent had only "fair" results.6

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