Technique may halve rehab time

Sports writer

Saturday 5 May 2012

Gordon MacKay, the Scottish orthopaedic surgeon who has salvaged the Olympic hopes of badminton player Susan Egelstaff, is at the forefront of treatment that could halve rehabilitation time from reconstructive ligament surgery.

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Doug Gillon

Mackay is promoting an internal brace for use on knee and ankle ligaments, using an inert material to accelerate recovery.

The procedure is currently being reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Mackay is optimistic that it will soon be approved and available. NHS surgeons have already approached him about it.

"Immobilisation is detrimental and damaging for anyone, but especially an athlete," Mackay said. "So we are looking to restore early movement and function, which seems to accelerate and improve outcome. That's what we are trying to do with ligament reconstruction, using an internal brace which allows you to start mobilising in even a week."Mackay has demonstrated the technique to US surgeons using cadavers and is lecturing in Florida next week, in Birmingham later this month, at Hampden during the Olympics, and at Arthro-London, an International Symposium on Surgical and Biological Treatments, immediately after the Paralympics. It will be attended by 2000 orthopaedic surgeons from all over the globe.He has completed one successful cruciate reconstruction on a teenage Scottish sportsman. Within three months, the patient had 96% of previous function. Normally that would take six to eight months. He is just back from a ski holiday. But mainly the brace has been used on ankle and knee ligaments other than the cruciate."We are working on the basis that we can reduce recovery time by 40-50%," Mackay says. "A medial or lateral ligament might normally take six months, but with this you could be back in competitive combat in 12 weeks. It could revolutionise the way we manage acute ligament injury."The procedure is being reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Mackay is optimistic it will be approved soon.

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Technique may halve rehab time

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