Patient Stories

For 64-year-old Kimberly Van Cleave, being active and athletic is a way of life.

“I love the gym – lifting weights, doing Pilates, riding my bike, playing golf – they all help me stay fit,” Kimberly said. “Skiing and travel are my other two loves and being in great shape helps me enjoy those even more.”

But it was on a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, that a bad fall put a temporary stop to all of them.

“I was having some of the best ski runs of my whole trip on a beautiful sunny day on the mountain,” Kimberly remembered. “I hit a patch of ice on a steep hill and lost the edge of my ski and had a terrible fall.”

She tumbled several times and her skis didn’t release, wrenching her right knee badly.

“I knew immediately that I had really injured it. It hurt so much,” Kimberly said. “I thought, ‘Oh boy, I really did it this time.' Another skier stopped to help me try to stand up and I fell right down – I had no stability in my knee.”

Back at home in Naples, Florida, an MRI revealed that Kimberly had torn her ACL. Not only was the injury going to keep her from the sports she loves, but it also threatened a long-planned trip to Italy with her sister, just six weeks later.

“I was crushed thinking we might have to cancel,” Kimberly said. “But I was determined to do everything I could to recover enough to go and do all the things we had planned.”

So, she turned to orthopedic surgeon Brian Wallace, DO (Naples, Florida), who specializes in sports medicine. He promised to fit her in quickly for surgery and said if it was possible, he would repair her ACL, rather than perform a complete reconstruction, which typically requires more healing time.

“Many patients are interested in a quicker recovery, which is much more accelerated with an ACL repair than a reconstruction,”¹^,² Dr. Wallace said. “It depends on how much of the ACL is intact and the quality of the tissue once we get in there. I will always do a repair if it’s possible, and Kimberly was a great candidate for it.”

Dr. Wallace repaired her ACL using the Arthrex InternalBrace™ technique, and Kimberly jumped into rehab within days of surgery. 

“I was so relieved to be able to have a repair, rather than a reconstruction, and I was determined to go on our trip to Italy,” Kimberly said. “I worked hard in physical therapy, and they pushed me. It was, honestly, excruciating at first, but I would not have made it if they didn’t.”

And she did make it. Kimberly and her sister traveled all over Italy as planned, with nothing but a supportive elastic sleeve on her knee.

“We swam in the sea and walked all over sightseeing. I climbed 250 steps to the top of a cathedral in Milan,” Kimberly said. “I looked out and felt a renewed sense of optimism. I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just did that.' My knee was so much stronger than I thought it could be by that time.”

Within nine months of surgery, Kimberly was back doing all her favorite activities, including skiing again.

“When you have the right surgeon with the right tools and you put it in the time in rehab, anything is possible,” Kimberly said.   

And she says she’s living proof of that.

“I am back to doing everything I love. There’s nothing that I feel like I can’t do.”

References:

1. Vermeijden HD, van der List JP, O'Brien R, DiFelice GS. Return to sports following arthroscopic primary repair of the anterior cruciate ligament in the adult population. Knee. 2020;27(3):906-914. doi:10.1016/j.knee.2020.04.001
2. Douoguih WA, Zade RT, Bodendorfer BM, Siddiqui Y, Lincoln AE. Anterior cruciate ligament repair with suture augmentation for proximal avulsion injuries. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2020;2(5):e475-e480. doi:10.1016/j.asmr.2020.05.003

Disclaimers:

The InternalBrace surgical technique is intended only to augment the primary repair/reconstruction by expanding the area of tissue approximation during the healing period and is not intended as a replacement for the native ligament. The InternalBrace technique is for use during soft tissue-to-bone fixation procedures and is not cleared for bone-to-bone fixation.

This is not medical advice and Arthrex recommends that surgeons be trained in the use of a particular product before using it in surgery. A surgeon must always rely on their own professional judgment when deciding whether to use a particular product when treating a particular patient. A surgeon must always refer to the package insert, product label, and/or directions for use before using any Arthrex product. Postoperative management is patient-specific and dependent on the treating professional's assessment. Individual results will vary and not all patients will experience the same postoperative activity level or outcomes. Products may not be available in all markets because product availability is subject to the regulatory or medical practices in individual markets.

This real patient was compensated for the time they took to share their story. 

Physician is a paid consultant of Arthrex, Inc.