Knee surgery, anterior cruciate ligament - Deciding to have surgery

The decision to have knee surgery will depend on the extent of damage to your anterior cruciate ligament and whether it affects your quality of life.

If your knee doesn't feel unstable and you don't have an active lifestyle, you may decide not to have anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery.

However, when deciding whether to have surgery you should be aware that delaying surgery could result in further damage to your knee.

One study of people with ACL tears found that their risk of damaging the injured knee increased by 1% for every month between the injury occurring and surgery.

Things to consider

When deciding whether to have ACL surgery, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

• your age – older people who aren't very active may be less likely to need surgery
• your lifestyle – for example, whether you'll be able to follow the rehabilitation programme after having surgery
• how often you play sports – you may need to have surgery if you play sports regularly 
• your occupation – for example, whether you do any form of manual labour
• how unstable your knee is – if your knee is very unstable, you're at increased risk of doing further damage if you don't have surgery  
• whether you have any other injuries – for example, your menisci may also be torn and may heal better when repaired at the same time as ACL reconstruction (menisci are small discs of cartilage that act as shock absorbers)

Children

Children can have ACL reconstructive surgery if necessary. However, as they're still growing, the procedure is likely to be modified to ensure that the growth areas aren't affected. It's also a trickier operation and may need to be carried out by a surgeon with a special interest in childhood injuries.