AFL Injury Update 01/07/2014

[ugg]

Taking over from Scott this week.

[Bloody Hell]

Dan back on his feet again

Funny watching this. There's a clear edit when talking about Rohan's injury...never seen that before.

[ernie koala]

I see Lloyd Perris is set to have a 'hybrid' lars/ traditional reconstruction.

This will apparently make for a speedier rehab (doesn't say by how much) compared to a straight traditional procedure.

Fingers crossed for him, hopefully it means he can have a full preseason.

[Ludwig]

I noticed that Tim Needham is now called the club physiotherapist. No mention of Matt Cameron. Has there been a change?

And where did that news about Perris come from? I haven't seen a thing about it on the Swans' website.

[ernie koala]

And where did that news about Perris come from? I haven't seen a thing about it on the Swans' website.

At the bottom of this article:

Finals will be a tough ask for Rioli: Doc Larkins - AFL.com.au

[Ludwig]

At the bottom of this article:

Finals will be a tough ask for Rioli: Doc Larkins - AFL.com.au

Good pick up Ernie, Thanks.

[ugg]

I noticed that Tim Needham is now called the club physiotherapist. No mention of Matt Cameron. Has there been a change?

And where did that news about Perris come from? I haven't seen a thing about it on the Swans' website.

Perris was diagnosed in last week's injury report. There were a few posts on here about it.

[goswannies]

I see Lloyd Perris is set to have a 'hybrid' lars/ traditional reconstruction.

This will apparently make for a speedier rehab (doesn't say by how much) compared to a straight traditional procedure.

Fingers crossed for him, hopefully it means he can have a full preseason.

In theory yes. A traditional graft takes 9-12 months to get to about 70-90% of its full strength. A LARS graft doesn't weaken like a traditional graft initially does. So, augmenting the traditional graft with the synthetic LARS material allows the LARS material/graft to take the initial strain of accelerated rehab while the traditional graft heals & strengthens to its full strength. It's really more how a LARS graft was meant to be used (Ligament Augmentation Reconstructive System - as opposed to using the LARS graft as the sole material to reconstruct the torn ligament)

[Ludwig]

In theory yes. A traditional graft takes 9-12 months to get to about 70-90% of its full strength. A LARS graft doesn't weaken like a traditional graft initially does. So, augmenting the traditional graft with the synthetic LARS material allows the LARS material/graft to take the initial strain of accelerated rehab while the traditional graft heals & strengthens to its full strength. It's really more how a LARS graft was meant to be used (Ligament Augmentation Reconstructive System - as opposed to using the LARS graft as the sole material to reconstruct the torn ligament)

Does having LARS hybrid mean that they use less autologous tissue? And if so, is that a benefit of the hybrid?

[goswannies]

Does having LARS hybrid mean that they use less autologous tissue? And if so, is that a benefit of the hybrid?

Depends on the surgeon. There is only so much room for the graft to sit in, in the intercondylar notch. The autologous graft is ideally a similar width to the ACL so that it can, in theory, be subjected to the same forces. Also, the LARS graft should eventually be superseded by the autologous graft (there is a school of thought that synthetic grafts often eventually fail, but by the time this happens with a hybrid LARS, the autologous graft should have well & truly incorporated, hence, it should be a relatively normal size to do its job properly.
Using less donor tissue is really only of benefit if the surgeon is concerned that the donor tissue will be weakened & susceptible to failure, but this is relatively uncommon.

[swansrob]

There are too many words being used here that I don't understand - specifically, 'autologous'. Let's break it down in to layman's terms: What LARS makes knee most good?

[neilfws]

There are too many words being used here that I don't understand - specifically, 'autologous'.

Google is your friend autologous just means "using bits of yourself", typically bits of hamstring.

This is quite a useful page, outlining the various reconstruction techniques:

ACL Reconstruction Graft Choice

[Jewels]

Depends on the surgeon. There is only so much room for the graft to sit in, in the intercondylar notch. The autologous graft is ideally a similar width to the ACL so that it can, in theory, be subjected to the same forces. Also, the LARS graft should eventually be superseded by the autologous graft (there is a school of thought that synthetic grafts often eventually fail, but by the time this happens with a hybrid LARS, the autologous graft should have well & truly incorporated, hence, it should be a relatively normal size to do its job properly.
Using less donor tissue is really only of benefit if the surgeon is concerned that the donor tissue will be weakened & susceptible to failure, but this is relatively uncommon.

At the ladies lunch a couple of years ago I had a long chat with Mal over his knee issues. He got quite technical when detailing the differences between Lars and traditional recos (hadn't heard of hybrid at that time), but the main point he made was that the big benefit he found with Lars over traditional is that there is only one point of injury to repair. With traditional reco's, not only does the knee itself have to heal but also where they took the hamstring from to make the graft. He said he had a lot of trouble with that after his first ACL, the knee healed well but he had trouble with infections in the donor graft site.

[paulg99]

I noticed that Tim Needham is now called the club physiotherapist. No mention of Matt Cameron. Has there been a change?

I noticed that too.....Matt is listed on the Swans web site as physio, with no mention of Tim. However, on LinkedIn, both record an association of several years with the Swans up to present. Maybe Matt is on vacation, but mid season that would seem a strange move, tho it was good enough for Vlad. I definitely saw him on TV treating a player, I think two weeks ago.

[Melbournehammer]

interesting that on today's one he is suggesting that aj will be consulting the surgeon next week with a view to considering what options for surgery...