How Double Knee Surgery Boosts Athletes' Comebacks

What if going under the knife once wasn't enough to bounce back from a knee injury? A new study looked into how dual surgery—fixing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and adding anterolateral ligament reconstruction (ALLR)—compared to just mending the ACL. They checked how quickly athletes returned to sports, their performance scores (called Tegner scores), and their confidence in avoiding future knee cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries (measured by ACL-RSI scores). Turns out, the team found that the double-surgery bunch generally had a smoother comeback!But why the extra surgery? Well, the ALLR helps stabilize the knee in a way the ACL alone can't. This extra support might just be the game-changer for athletes eager to get back in the game. The researchers dug into 13 studies, involving over 1, 500 people, to find these results. Sure, it's not a final answer, but it's a strong nudge towards considering the double whammy approach for serious knee injuries.