Brett's Story
Brett Jones, a vice president at Arthrex, suffered a catastrophic knee injury while skiing. Thanks to minimally invasive Arthrex technology, Brett is ahead of the game in his recovery.
Brett Jones, a vice president at Arthrex, suffered a catastrophic knee injury while skiing in Montana.
“It was December 28, and it was the first run of the day,” he said. “I took a turn and where my skis should have hit snow, they hit ice. I lost the back of my ski and went down.”
Brett had severe damage in his knee. He had torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), lateral collateral ligament (LCL), medial and lateral meniscus, and patellar tendon. “There was nothing holding my leg together; it was very unstable,” Brett said.
Repairing Brett’s Knee
A surgeon in Montana urged him to find a surgeon who specialized in multiligament injuries. Brett turned to Dr. Patrick A. Smith for help.
“Brett is a tough guy. He had a painful injury, and his knee was very unstable. Luckily, he was able to give me a good exam, which helped me to see how severely injured he was,” Dr. Smith said.
While most injuries of this type might have been performed in stages, Brett needed everything fixed immediately because he had to return home to Singapore. Because Brett works at Arthrex, he knew about the Arthrex ACL repair procedure, and he requested that Dr. Smith repair his damaged ligament.
Dr. Smith said that while ACL reconstruction is a more common procedure than ACL repair, the advantage to repairing the ligament is the preservation of the patient’s native tissue, which is important for healing.
“There are no tunnels, so the pain is reduced. Patients tend to recover a bit better and you do not have to worry about donor-site morbidity from where the graft tissue is taken,” Brett said.
Dr. Smith performed ACL primary repair using the Arthrex ACL Repair TightRope® implant. He then repaired the MCL and LCL, using the InternalBrace technique to support them. Next, Dr. Smith turned his attention to the patellar tendon, which was also repaired using the InternalBrace technique.
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Physical Therapy and Recovery
Brett began physical therapy immediately after surgery.
“The more he can move his knee, the more he will prevent scar tissue from building up,” said Dr. Smith. “The motion will make for a healthier joint and help him get his range of motion back.”
The physical therapy was essential to his recovery, Brett said.
Since the incident, Brett has returned to some of the physical activities he loves, including pickleball, and he is grateful to Dr. Smith.
“I am ahead of the game in my recovery, especially when you consider the amount of surgery I had,” Brett said.
The presenting surgeon is a paid consultant for Arthrex Inc. For questions, please contact Arthrex Medical Education.
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.
