What is Internal brace in ACL surgery?

Internal Brace ACL graft is a method to protect the graft against excessive stresses. ACL graft takes a  long time to mature (ligamentize) That is why conventional in ACL rehab it takes around 9 months to return to sports otherwise re-rupture rates are higher as the graft has not matured enough to take excessive loads

What is an Internal Brace made of?

An Internal Brace is a Fibre Tape manufactured by Arthrex which is a high-strength tape made of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) the same material used in Knee & Hip replacements when fixed along with an ACL graft that acts as a seat belt & doesn’t allow excessive load transfer on to the graft

Who needs an Internal Brace?

Athletes who sustain an ACL injury in the middle of the season & who need to return to the sport as early as possible are ideal candidates for an ACL with Internal brace augmentation. In a normal person undergoing ACL surgery on rare occasions, the Hamstrings tendon graft has insufficient thickness for an ACL graft only then one can consider an Internal brace augmentation

What are the potential drawbacks of an Internal brace?

Because almost all ligaments in our body are designed to take load during the joint function, offloading a ligament during the healing phase will not allow the ligament to gain its full strength & eventually might lead to reabsorption of the entire graft making it non-functional this phenomenon is called as stress shielding

Another drawback is there are no long-term studies available as to how this internal brace behaves in the long run as this is a non-absorbable material which is going to remain in the joint forever. So any long-term potential damage to the joint cannot be ruled out yet as this is an inelastic material which might lead to high reaction forces across the joint as compared to the native elastic ACL

We provide excellent medical care but also strive to deliver the best service possible for Internal Brace ACL in Ghatkopar