ACL Online Therapy for natural healing

ACL tears heal without surgery

Patient Information and Mechanism of Injury

23 years old, male, Japanese, athlete

On December 3, 2021, he twisted his left knee while practicing for a sport called Kabaddi. On the same day, he underwent an MRI examination at the hospital and was diagnosed as follows:

Complete ACL Tear

The patient was enrolled in the Indian professional league, was told by the physiotherapist of his team that he would be able to return in four weeks, and was undergoing treatment and rehabilitation. Although he returned to practice, the pain did not subside, and while searching for information, he came across the natural healing therapy of Jun Matsumoto, and started online treatment from January 10, 2022. After returning to Japan in February of the same year, he continued to receive face-to-face and online treatments, aiming for natural healing. On March 1, we had his second MRI.

MRI image diagnosis showed a tendency of spontaneous healing, but no clear continuity of the ligament could be confirmed. After returning home, he did not train for competition, only did exercise therapy and waited for his ligaments to heal. On May 19, 2022, his third MRI was performed.

The third MRI scan, much the same as the previous one, showed no clear ligament continuity. A manual examination revealed that the knee joint was less instable, suggesting adhesion of the anterior cruciate ligament stump to the posterior cruciate ligament.

Future prospects and considerations

After that, rehabilitation was continued toward the return to competition, but the patient chose reconstructive surgery because the international competition scheduled to be held in the fall of the same year was postponed for one year.

Although the exact reason for the failure of normal spontaneous healing of the anterior cruciate ligament rupture to occur is unclear, two possible causes are presented. One is the misjudgment of the medical staff of the overseas team of which he was enrolled. Despite the complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, he did not rest from training, aiming to return in four weeks. Second, one week after the start of the Evo-Devo Exercises, his symptoms improved dramatically, so he participated in a practice-level practice, where he collapsed his knees. It may be difficult to get athletes to take a break from practice and concentrate on treatment, but this case made us realize again the difficulties and problems of treating athletes.

References

Crain EH, Fithian DC, Paxton EW, Luetzow WF. Variation in anterior cruciate ligament scar pattern: does the scar pattern affect anterior laxity in anterior cruciate ligament-deficient knees? Arthroscopy. 2005 Jan;21(1):19-24. doi: 10.1016

Kittani M, Haviv B, Shemesh S, Yaari L, Yassin M, Rath-Wolfson L. Morphological and Histological Changes in the Human Anterior Cruciate Ligament after Rupture. Isr Med Assoc J. 2021 Jan;23(1):33-37.

ACL Online Therapy for natural healing

ACL tears heal without surgery

Patient Information and Mechanism of Injury

39 years old, male, Japanese, Occupation: Military officer

On December 2, 2021, he twisted his left knee during a martial arts practice. He had an MRI scan two weeks later and he was diagnosed as follows:

Left knee anterior cruciate ligament tear
medial meniscus tear

As for the patient’s symptoms, there is discomfort in walking due to limited range of motion. It hurts in complete flexion and twisting his knee. When he moves vigorously, his knee becomes giving way.

From December 20, 2021, he started the online therapy for the natural healing of the ACL tear with Jun Matsumoto. He continued doing the Evo-Devo Exercises for five months, and he took the next MRI on May 9, 2022.

MRI evaluation

Both the tibial and femoral stumps of the torn anterior cruciate ligament appear to be fused with the posterior cruciate ligament. In this case, the anterior cruciate ligament stumps did not fuse together, but the knee regained stability through the fusion with the posterior cruciate ligament. In the medial meniscus, damage to the inner edge only spread to the outer edge and reached the red zone with high blood flow, so natural healing can be expected in the future.

Future prospects and considerations

The patient was interviewed online approximately 8 months after injury. He resumed his sports activities, and his subjective evaluation showed that he had recovered to about 90% of the pre-injury level. In this case, the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament did not normally heal spontaneously and was healed by fusion with the posterior cruciate ligament. Instability of the knee does not remain and achieves sufficient functional recovery.

The reason why normal natural healing did not occur this time is still unclear, but I would like to describe the points that caught my attention. One was that he experienced several knee collapses after performing vigorous exercise several times immediately after the injury. Second, about two months after the start of treatment, he once felt some severe pain when going up and down stairs. In the future, when there is a case of degenerative healing, we will leave such points of concern as data as comparison material.

References

Crain EH, Fithian DC, Paxton EW, Luetzow WF. Variation in anterior cruciate ligament scar pattern: does the scar pattern affect anterior laxity in anterior cruciate ligament-deficient knees? Arthroscopy. 2005 Jan;21(1):19-24. doi: 10.1016

Kittani M, Haviv B, Shemesh S, Yaari L, Yassin M, Rath-Wolfson L. Morphological and Histological Changes in the Human Anterior Cruciate Ligament after Rupture. Isr Med Assoc J. 2021 Jan;23(1):33-37.