ACL gone - CTI knee brace question

Hi Miha
Im not using knee braces for windsurfing but I do use them for my dirt bike riding. While CTI custom is pretty much the best brace you can possibly buy I wouldn't go that way. With the CTI custom it is made a very close fit to your leg size and wouldn't fit on over the top of a wetsuit. If you got it made to fit with a wetsuit you wouldn't be able to use it without the wetsuit. They are also THE most expensive way to go. I use Asterisk knee braces and they have different thickness neoprene pads which you can interchange on the inside of the brace either side of your knee. You could try putting the thinner ones in while you have your wetsuit on and thicker ones when you don't. You might get away with it. Or buy the generic CTI braces. I assume they would have a similar set up so they can fit various leg shapes like the Asterisk. They are also a fair bit cheaper than the customs.

I had an ACL repair about 15 years ago. Very poor stability ever since.

My experience with braces:

My first brace, shortly after the surgery was townsend. I lost a lot of mass in my leg during recovery. 12 months later the brace was a poor fit.
pro - excellent fit when brace is new. short length. con - doesn't grow with you.

Second brace was a gen II. A custom fit but flexible plastic-like material.
pro - good fit. accommodates change is leg size. con - long lenght, bulky. not durable. didn't last.

third brace was a cti.
con - brace didn't seem like a custom but accommodates change in leg size. Very durable. con - not very comfortable. brace slips.

townsend my favourite, but need to make sure leg size doesn't change. I liked the cti more than the gen II.

Hi Mihan

I just had an isolated ACL snap too. I borrowed a knee brace and it was good enough to keep skiing for the week. I bought the same one and spent a week windsurfing at Lake George. My knee would pop out once a day skiing and only once while at Lake George and all times it was from rotating. Every day it feels like it's right on the edge of popping and it's always from a twisting motion, eg looking over my shoulder before crossing a side street, or turning around in a supermarket aisle.

FWIW, I used this brace:
www.bodyheal.com.au/products/5411x-mueller-hg80-hinged-knee-brace?currency=AUD&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1q3VBRCFARIsAPHJXrGfiGmrVvIJue7iqMKPxWlcmRLRQSn58OHeOd1I1P6vboP5x3nNFZUaAvrSEALw_wcB&language=en

Surgery is a no-brainer for me - I can't wait to get it fixed.

In short

Long:
ACL background information if anyone is wondering!

Select to expand quote

John340 said..
A knee brace cannot provide the same stability as a properly performed knee reconstruction. A stable knee is essential for windsurfing. Knee pops are dislocations of the joint caused by instability of the joint. Every time your knee pops you do damage to your miniscus. The miniscus is the shock absorber in your leg. Sailing in any chop needs a healthy miniscus. Your doctor is wrong, have the reconstruction surgery.

I agree, but only to a certain extent. I've been sailing my entire time since 1983 with half of a meniscus in one leg, most of the medial is gone (removed in '76), in the waves pretty much exclusively, and still fairly aggressively . Been using a neoprene brace (w/o any hardware), under my wetsuit the entire time. It's gotten me up to this point, some 35 years later, but I lose a little bit every year to be honest. Just so happens that I'm going in to see my ortho doc later this month for an assessment, even though nothing new happened, I just need to know where I am now days at the age of 67. I'm hoping to make it to 70 w/o any needed surgery, after that I can see me possibly being a candidate for a new knee, even though I'm not running for that office, so maybe not. Here is my motto.

I've had a rebuild and the only way to go.
Even after the rebuild, I was told that Windsurfing isn't a good idea.
A bit over twenty years later and the only thing I notice different is the screw holding the bottom end of the new tendon, which I can feel protruding slightly.
Also my ham is a bit skinnier on that leg, because I was too quick getting back on the motor bike (road), and I nearly dropped it on wet grass.
Tried to hold it with that leg and popped the re-forming ham string that they took.
Go hard on the re-hab afterwards and have the opp.
Before the opp (about a year after the injury), I couldn't turn on it at all. In fact I couldn't do much at all.
Get ready for some serious pain coming out of the opp. Morphine is "Awesome!!!!"
Long road ahead mate.
Good luck.

Select to expand quote

shear tip said..

mihan said..
Hi Shear tip!
I got your point about braces! Simple one is enough for your needs. How fast after injury did you windsurf or ski first? Miha

I snapped my ACL on the first day of a week skiing in Japan. I skiied every day still with a knee brace, but as I said, my knee popped about once a day. I windsurfed at Lake George two weeks later for another week with the same knee brace, but my knee popped when I was flipping the rig standing in knee deep weed. All of the time my knee popped out I was rotating the knee which a brace is going to struggle with supporting.

I haven't sailed since Feb, as the local area is quite choppy and has the odd catapault-inducing jellyfish or plastic bag. I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't be sailing until maybe October, depending on when I can get into have the surgery. I'll find out on Wednesday.

So we are very close, very similar situation. After the injury, which happened 4 weeks ago I never did any sport. I do physio excercises every day and ride my spinner bike 3x 10 min , without any load. My physiotherapist believes that in 3 months I will recover fully. Than operate and recover again...... today I visited brace shop and tried bauerfeind one.... thats available here around.....

Had one average & one bad knee for a while, decades of footy, big jumps and general bad behavior in the waves takes its toll. Who'd have thunk?
3 months recovery is about right from my experience blowing all my CLs... Stick to the rehab but don't stop once feeling better. I reckon full recovery is BS, the remnants of reasonably serious injuries will sit there waiting for you to slack off (or get old). Personally been in continual rehab//maintenance mode for a few years with hip, lower back, neck, elbow & knee issues. Trusted advisor tells me to put off surgery until pain from an injury//wear+tear gets to the point where you can't sleep through. All working a treat keeping mobile and me on the water.
Been sailing with knee braces for a while, most recent purchase below. First use on the water was 2-3hrs pretty rough wave sailing this week. Stays in place well, didn't know it was there & finished the day with knee feeling 100%. No metal parts & brakes down for cleaning out sand & salt. Surface material a bit scuffed up for one sail so will see how long it lasts but generally get new braces every year anyway. So far 8/10.

www.oppomedical.com/product/detail.asp?Serno=392

Another knee brace not mentioned but suitable for water sports is the pod k8 and k4 braces. Highly rated in motocross circles. Available at most dirt bike shops. Ben using them for 5months and the stability it provides my knee is confidence inspiring.

Update. I recovered much allready without operation so far. Can bike, walk or run 3 km now. Doing 3x weekly 2 hours special excercises - training. Was windsurfing few times allready, wearing kneebrace for safety. Still do not know to operate or not...

Apart from surgery, in terms of braces just get a cti custom. Best you can get, and when you consider your body is your most important piece of kit, why hesitate when you drop $000's on everything else? No brainer far as I'm concerned

Milhan I think that you should definitely do the surgery. I had one about 17 years ago and my only regret is that I didn't do it earlier and prevent the subsequent injuries before surgery that have set me up for the occasional arthritic pain and swelling. Since surgery my knee stability has been excellent and I have even been able to play squash, something you would never consider with a dodgy knee Cheers Jens

Blew mine out with bone damage. No weight bearing for 2 months was the surgeon's recommendation decades ago.

Played tennis and basketball after. Only time windsurfing was an issue was on one-leg landings! Dislocated my kneecap (horrible pain, thought my leg was broken!). Since then I make a conscious effort to keep my legs bent.

We're all different. Mine feels strong. I can balance on one leg, lower to the ground and get back up.

But I do think about it all the time, I'm sure it hurts performance, confidence, but that's ok. I can land forwards and backloops. Curiously, tail landing high jumps is scarier to me.