Do You Need Surgery?
Every year in the US, roughly 64 million surgeries are performed. That's nearly 1 in 5 people.
I'm not here to tell you surgery is some bad thing or that it's unnatural (having your Achille's Tendon ruptured and rolled up into your calf isn't natural either). I will also not push you towards it.
I get it. Surgery can be scary. It can fail. It can also be the one thing that fixes you. How do you know if it's the right answer for you specifically? Hopefully I can help answer that for you or at least give you enough nuance to point you in the right direction.
At face value, it's going to depend on what's wrong with the tissue. If something is chronic, surgery likely isn't the answer ever. Unless you ruptured something, did nothing about it and then got tired of it never being right.
If something is acutely ruptured, surgery should always be a discussion to be had; especially if you are an athlete that is actively competing at a high level. Yes there is a ton of nuance so we'll look at some examples.
Example 1:
An ex collegiate female basketball player tears her ACL. It is an isolated tear; no meniscus damage or other collateral ligament damage. She is 30 years old. She has no desire to ever compete at anything competitive again and only wants jog recreationally.
Could she get surgery? Of course. She is missing an ACL.
Does she need surgery? Likely no. She can regain plenty of stability in that knee and the ACL is already gone so she can't further injure it.
In this case surgery is not warranted.
Example 2:
A strong man and avid weight lifter tears his biceps tendon off the bone.
He has a competition in 8 months.
A non op route would consist of letting that tendon scar down. His biceps would likely never regain full function, and if it did, there would be a good chance of reinjury.
He would likely have complications often and that arm would not feel right ever
Full recovery from surgery is 4-6 months.
He needs to be back in a proper time and he needs little setbacks. Surgery is almost always the option in this situation.
Example 3:
An MLB baseball player has a grade 2 UCL sprain. This means it is only partially torn. Lot more grey area here
Here's his options:
Get Tommy John surgery, miss 12-18 months
Try conservative therapy, maybe get back in 6-8 months. Caveat here, if the conservative therapy doesn't work, now you need surgery. So add 6-8 months and you're looking at 2 years almost guaranteed until you get back.
How do you know if conservative therapy is right for you? You won't until you get back or not. It's a gamble. There is no right answer here.
This is going to come down to personal risk tolerance and other individual preferences. What I can tell you in this situation from the stand point of an athlete is to take the more guaranteed option.
So do you need surgery?
Ultimately it comes down to what you need that tissue to do
Athlete? Usually
Non athlete? Usually not
Is something fully torn? Almost always
Nothing is torn? Almost never
If you go to your doc and the first thing they suggest is surgery, get a second opinion
Looking down the barrel at surgery and not sure what to do?
Reach out and get help ➡️here⬅️