SIAP LSU besting ACL recovery times with new surgery!

“Tight end Jamal Pettigrew stepped through footwork drills, blocked dummies, pivoted and cut through routes in the LSU indoor practice facility — standard stuff, except for one thing: Pettigrew had only surgically repaired his torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) four months before, which, according to experts, meant he’d returned to football activities nearly twice as fast as the average athlete.”

No brace. No problem.

Back at Tiger Stadium, athletic training director Jack Marucci leaned forward in a stadium-seat chair in his office to explain: For nearly two decades, LSU has been practicing an ACL surgery that the consensus of sports organizations considers far too risky.

“The results, Marucci said, have shown that LSU’s decision was both innovative and safe.

Over 17 years, LSU has repaired the ACLs of 39 football players, and only one player suffered a re-tear — a success rate (97 percent) that equals or exceeds the success rates that have been reported from the nation’s standard method of surgery.

Here’s what sets LSU apart: Marucci said the average time that it takes for an LSU player to return to practice from surgery is 4.8 months — a timeline several sports physicians consider impressive.“


Now the LSU athletic training staff is collecting data from those former players to produce an official report, which could persuade other collegiate and professional football organizations to buck the standard surgery and advance sports medicine into a new era.

The method they are using is taking muscle from the hamstring to repair the ACL which is originally said to be too weak to support the knee, but LSU is proving that theory to be wrong.