After the ACI Procedure

After the operation, you will need extensive rehabilitation that is designed for your lesion or lesions and your operation. There will often be some time of non-weight bearing and use of crutches. There will usually be some limited range of motion (ROM) as controlled by a hinged brace. Most surgeons use a CPM, continuous passive motion machine to keep the knee limber without putting pressure across the joint. Slowly and progressively your ROM will be increased. Your strength will follow. Interestingly, many patients start to feel so good that they want to move to higher levels of activity too soon. Unfortunately, in some cases the surgeon has to hold the patient back. Regardless of how the patient feels, healing takes some time. The graft or implant will not mature to allow high compression forces until about 9 months. If the patient is too active too soon, the graft can seriously be damaged or fail.  Most patients will not be able to run until about 9 to 12 months. However, you will be allowed to be full weight bearing at about 6-8 weeks after your surgery. The grafted cartilage’s regenerative process will be complete at about 18 months. It is at this time that the joint has been restored.

ACI, Carticel, has been shown to be a viable option for selected lesions. Though the implant procedure is inconvenient because of the time obligation involved, the results can be very gratifying.