Dr. Jeff Abrams
Princeton, New Jersey

If no surgery is done, work hard on strengthening thigh muscles and consider a brace for sports.

F. Alan Barber MD, FACS
Plano, Texas

With a tear of the ACL, your knee has lost the main stabilizing ligament. Pivoting activities will place stresses on the joint that may exceed your knee's ability to support you. When this happens, your knee buckles and gives way. That may be painful and cause knee swelling. Whenever a buckling episode occurs, the cartilages are bruised. Any of these buckling episodes can result in tearing of the vital knee cartilages that can lead to arthritis. If you do not have this surgery, you must avoid these buckling episodes (either by avoiding all pivoting sports and activities, or by wearing a brace whenever you pivot).

Dr. Don Johnson
Ottawa, Canada

The main disability you will encounter if you chose not to have surgery is the giving way with pivotal activities. This continued giving way causes irreparable damage to the joint that will result in arthritis in later years.

Dr. Hugh West
Salt Lake City, Utah

If you can give up the activities that are likely to make your knee give out, like cutting and pivoting sports, aggressive skiing, or things like hard singles tennis, then you will most likely never be bothered by the fact that you have torn your ACL. There are a some active people who choose not to have surgery on their ACL and instead modify their activities so that they avoid things that could cause their knee to "give out." We call these people "copers," and while they don't consider their knee to be ideal, they slow down a little bit and choose a slightly less active lifestyle.