Knee Ligament Reconstruction Surgery
ACL, PCL, MCL and LCL reconstruction for athletes and active adults. Board-certified orthopedic surgery in Port St. Lucie and Palm Beach Gardens, FL.
When does a knee ligament need reconstructing?
A knee that gives way is a knee you stop trusting — on stairs, on uneven ground, and long before you get near a pitch. Reconstruction is about getting that trust back.
The ACL, PCL, MCL and LCL are what hold the joint together through a cut, a landing or a tackle. Tear one badly enough and the knee stops controlling itself — which is uncomfortable in the short term and, left alone, grinds down cartilage over years.
The work starts with examination and imaging — which ligament, how badly, and what else went with it, because cartilage and meniscus damage often travel alongside. Reconstruction is done arthroscopically where the injury allows, using a graft to rebuild the ligament, with biologic augmentation in selected cases. The operation is the shorter half. What decides the result is the rehabilitation: strength first, then proprioception and neuromuscular control, then the sport-specific movement your knee actually has to survive. Skip that last stage and the knee tests well in clinic and fails on the field.
Which ligament injuries do we reconstruct?
ACL Tears / Ruptures
The classic non-contact injury: a plant, a cut, a bad landing, and the knee goes.
PCL Injuries
Usually a dashboard, a hard fall onto a bent knee, or a direct blow to the front of the shin.
MCL / LCL Sprains & Tears
Damage down the inside or outside of the joint, where the knee buckles sideways.
Multi-Ligament Knee Injuries
More than one ligament gone at once — serious trauma, and a reconstruction that has to be sequenced carefully.
Ligament Graft Failure / Revision Cases
A previous reconstruction that stretched out, failed, or never took.
Associated Meniscal Tears
A torn meniscus alongside the ligament, often the reason the knee catches or locks.
Patellar Instability with Ligament Laxity
A kneecap that keeps coming out because the soft tissue holding it has given up.
High-Demand Athletic Knee Injury
Competitive-level damage, where the repair has to survive a return to real load.
What reconstruction is meant to achieve
- A knee that holds its line when you change direction
- An end to the buckling and the near-misses
- Stairs, uneven ground and sport without bracing for it
- Coordination and reaction time rebuilt, not just strength
- Cartilage and meniscus protected from the damage instability causes
- A lower chance of arthritis arriving early
- Rehab built around your sport, your job and your life
- Arthroscopic technique wherever possible, for a faster start
- Graft choice made for how long it has to last, not convenience
- A route back to the level you played at before
Come in, get a straight answer about what is wrong, and leave knowing what happens next.
Further reading: Knee Pain: When to See an Orthopedic Doctor Instead of Waiting It Out.
FAQ
Common Patient Questions
When the knee still gives way after a fair run at rehab, or when the ligament was never going to heal by itself.
Either your own tissue or donor tissue. Which one suits you comes down to your age, how hard you load the knee, and what exactly was damaged.
Rehab starts almost straight away. Sport is usually somewhere in the six-to-nine-month range.
Often yes, early on and again when you start returning to sport — it depends how stable the knee is.
You are cleared on testing — strength, control, movement quality, hop symmetry — never on the calendar alone.
Generally when the ligament is fully torn or badly damaged and the knee has become unreliable — repeated giving-way, or no realistic route back to your activities.
Everyday activity comes back within a few months for most people. High-impact sport is a longer job — commonly six to twelve months, and it depends on the rehab being done properly.
Related
You may also be interested in
ACL Reconstruction
ACL Reconstruction →Meniscus Repair
Meniscus Repair →Patellar Dislocation Surgery
Patellar Dislocation Surgery →Where You’d Be Seen
Knee ligament reconstruction in Port St. Lucie & Palm Beach Gardens
This is offered at both locations — our orthopedic office in Port St. Lucie (1100 SW St. Lucie West Blvd., Ste. 105) and our orthopedic office in Palm Beach Gardens (11380 Prosperity Farms Rd, Ste 204). Patients travel in from Stuart, Jensen Beach, Fort Pierce, Jupiter, North Palm Beach and West Palm Beach — see every area we serve, or call 561-202-8886.