Imagine the pain and the shock a biker had to go through with knees that kept slipping off after an accident she met with.

A 27-year-old part-time professional bike racer, almost gave up her hope of getting back into racing when she injured her knees on meeting with an accident. "I could feel something was wrong with my knees immediately after the accident. As I tried climbing up the stairs my knee kept slipping off. In addition to the excruciating pain I was going through, I was really scared and tensed about whether I would be able to race again", she said.

The racer and her family went through a sleepless night till she visited the Apollo Hospitals Bannerghatta the next day and consulted Dr Raviraj Nayak, Senior consultant, and Orthopedic Surgeon. Dr Raviraj examined the biker's knee and suggested a ligament reconstruction surgery for her as she had torn her ligament during the accident.

Apollo doctor works magic on the passionate biker
"I was very scared as I thought this surgery would hinder my racing career. However, Dr Raviraj and the team at Apollo Hospital did magic and I got completely fit and fine the next day of the surgery" she said.

The expertise of Apollo doctors and the state-of-the-art infrastructure at the hospital enabled her to start walking from the next day following the surgery using knee support for four weeks. For the next three months, she was instructed to not run, jump and exercise and with the appropriate physiotherapy at the Apollo Hospital, she is back to normal life. At present, she is running, doing her workouts and back to racing without any constraints. While she had lost all hopes of getting back to bike racing, her passion, she has now plunged into racing once again.

Minimally invasive arthroscopic technique
The treatment on her was conducted using a minimally invasive arthroscopic technique. The procedure is medically known as arthroscopic anatomical Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction. The procedure is performed to reconstruct the torn ligament using a hamstring tendon graft that is harvested from the knee. "Here we had a young lady biker who was very passionate about pursuing her dream of biking and racing. She required knee surgery and aggressive rehabilitation to get her back into her sporting career. Her positive approach and her commitment towards following the post-surgical protocol helped us to do her treatment appropriately and brought her speedy recovery", said Dr Raviraj Nayak, Senior Consultant, and Orthopedic Surgeon and her treating doctor explaining how the procedure helped in the biker's speedy recovery.

According to doctors, this arthroscopic anatomical Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a minimally invasive procedure with minimal cuts on the skin, least blood loss and early aggressive rehabilitation. It is best opted for a hassle-free and speedy recovery with an accurate outcome. There are several other benefits of this minimally invasive procedure. It lowers the risk for postoperative infections due to the abundant intra-operative lavage, clears sight of the inner components of the joint. It produces minimal size of the wound and reduces post-operative pain. Additionally, it leads to reduced hospitalisation costs and results in faster rehabilitation.

The recovery obtained is as fast as within 24 hours of the procedure or immediately after the removal of the damaged tube. Following the surgery, the knee obtains perfect mobility within a very short span of time and active mobilisation of the patient is early. The best part of this surgery is that patients undergoing this procedure once do not need revision surgery. The clinical outcome of arthroscopic anatomical Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction depends on several factors. A good, well equipped orthopaedic department with quality arthroscopic devices, well-trained surgeons are mandatory for increasing the success rate of this minimally invasive procedure.

State-of-the-art technology matching international standards, the precision of the orthopaedic department and the surgical expertise of the doctors at Apollo Hospitals Bannerghatta enable optimal output of this procedure on patients suffering from knee injury due to sports or trauma. Similar expertise enabled the young female biker to get back to pre-injury activity and sports.