Thread: ACL Recon in Overweight People

Just wondering if anyone here is a little (or a lot) overweight. Some docs will do ACL's on anybody while others refuse to do them on people who are overweight.

I'll admit I am overweight but I do not look that big. I am built like a brick wall. Honestly, I am 250 pounds but look like I am about 175 (still not skinny...I know). Just wondering if anyone has had bad ACL recon experiences possibly due to being overweight.

My doc keeps telling me I should not be skiing because I am too heavy but it's what I love to do so if I need knee replacements in 10 years so be it.

I am going on my 4th recon and my weight probably is a factor in why I blew the grafts out. Regardless, my doc is still willing to do the recons but has warned me that this is the last one. He won't do a 3rd recon on the same knee. By then he says I am best just to leave my knees the way they are until I consider a replacement.

I have skied all my life and have never been slender. I guess it's just not meant to be. FWIW my boyfriend is a beanpole and still thinks I am the hottest chick in the world. I don't know how I ended up with him because with his looks he could have any girl in the world but he's mine now...LOL

I am 41, 5'6" and currently 155lbs (or 148lbs according to my doctor's scale, which I like better...). When I had my recon in December, I was about 164. (People are always surprised I'm as heavy as I am, I guess I don't look like it).

Anyhow... when I saw the surgeon here in Edmonton, he didn't cite weight as the reason he wouldn't do it, he mentioned in his letter I was "not overweight" (not that he weighed me) and "active physically." But I strongly suspect that if he could have, he would have deemed me "overweight" and not "athletic" enough for him (he's the team surgeon for our hockey team btw...), that would have been his reason for not doing the reconstruction... but since he couldn't turn me down on those reason, he told me that I had "arthritis" and this was the cause of my pain, and he didn't see anything he needed to fix... he did tell me to watch my weight though, since I couldn't run "and you know what happens when you stop moving..."

So I went to see Dr. Mark, who didn't comment on my weight at all -- although he was quite vocal about the "arthritis diagnosis" which he found zero evidence of - (either Dr. Hockey can't read a x-ray or Alberta is rationing care... you pick).

All that said, I suspect that probably with all knee injury, excess weight is never helpful.

Sorry for blabbering.

Its really not that important. Since I come from Texas, the capital of the big people, we have just gotten used to it.

Originally Posted by drmark

Its really not that important. Since I come from Texas, the capital of the big people, we have just gotten used to it.

Just curious, Dr Mark. What about meniscus repairs for overweight or obese people? Is weight an insignificant factor for those procedures, too?

I´d love to be more articulate about my questions, but it´s late over here, and diction in any language (even Norwegian!) is tough at the moment.

For the OP: Even though you look 175lbs, your joints are feeling 250lbs. Hope you figure this out!

Do skinny people with multiple ACL repairs drive up Ins costs? I have a in shape buddy who had one two years ago and the other one blew out this Feb. Mine are good and I'm 6'1 225 lbs and ride hard and still club race and Tele. My Dr. said I'm in great shape for my age.

Everything drives up insurance costs. Bonuses for the fat cat insurance company bosses especially.


I don't know of any study comparing the results of meniscal repair in little and big people.

The most important factor in determining meniscal repair healing is location of the tear and whether or not an ACLR was done at the same time.

I just about never repair the lateral meniscus. Most of the time, ignoring the tear leads to a good result and removal of the meniscus leads to arthritis.