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After a brilliant defensive stop against the Shiloh High School Generals, Brookwood High School’s punt return unit ran onto the field. At the snap, Broncos junior defensive back Juwan Ferris got past his blockers and had a clear path to the punter.

Juwan jumped to attempt a punt block but hyperextended his left knee when he landed. He crumpled to the turf in extreme pain, then hobbled to the sideline. His knee had no strength and offered no support.

Gary Levengood, M.D., team physician at Brookwood High School and orthopedic surgeon at Gwinnett Medical Center, took a closer look at Juwan’s injury in the locker room and declared that the athlete had torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Only three weeks into the 2009 season, Juwan was out for the year. Disappointment and recovery on his mind, he wanted to quickly learn his options and next steps.

“Being out for the entire football season was definitely a big disappointment,” Juwan says. “But it was my junior year and I knew that I had to get well to prepare to be ready for my last year in high school.”

A NEW KIND OF SURGERY

Dr. Levengood recommended double-bundle ACL repair to Juwan and his family. He had been performing this type of knee repair surgery— a relatively new procedure in the sports medicine world—for more than a year and believed it would better suit Juwan’s active lifestyle than the traditional single-bundle ACL repair.

Jay Pearson, ATC, LAT, Brookwood’s head athletic trainer who is provided to the school by Gwinnett Medical Center, led Juwan through exercises to keep his leg muscles strong prior to surgery; strong mus- cles help improve surgery results and hasten rehabilitation. Just four days after his double-bundle ACL repair, Juwan started two weeks of rehab with Dr. Levengood’s staff, followed by months of intense daily rehab under Pearson’s supervision at Brookwood.

Six months after his double-bundle ACL repair, Juwan believed he was ready to return to the game.

“I feel like my knee is at 100 percent,” he says, “but the trainers keep telling me I’m not quite there. So I keep working. I thought I was going to get slower, but, already, I barely notice a difference.”

After having surgery to repair his torn ACL, Juwan Ferris goes through intense daily rehabilitation under the supervision of athletic trainer Jay Pearson.

COMPARING KNEE REPAIR TECHNIQUES

Single-bundle ACL surgery, the traditional anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, involves taking a ligament graft to replace one of the two bundles that make up the ACL. Since the ACL cannot be sewn back together, surgeons use a graft from the hamstring or patella to replace it. The graft is placed through one hole in the tibia and one hole in the femur, then secured in place with a screw.

Double-bundle ACL surgery, a new repair technique used at Gwinnett Medical Center, replaces both bundles in the ACL instead of one. Two small grafts are used instead of one large graft. Two holes are made in the tibia as well as in the femur, and four screws are put into place. Gwinnett Medical Center orthopedic surgeon Gary Levengood, M.D., and other lead- ing authorities in ACL repair believe that the double-bundle technique more closely replicates the normal anatomy of the ACL than traditional single-bundle surgery. Therefore, double- bundle surgery can improve knee kinematics, resulting in more normal functioning and long-term strength.

100% AND BEYOND

After traditional ACL repair, many athletes fear they won’t regain their form. With double-bundle ACL surgery, however, Juwan was able to maintain—even increase—his speed in a matter of months; he shaved his time in the 40-yard dash by two-tenths of a second, to just under 4.5 seconds.

“In the short term, patients who have double-bundle ACL repair regain their range of motion more quickly than those who have traditional ACL reconstruction,” Dr. Levengood says. “This is the number-one benefit to my patients who are athletes or who just enjoy an active lifestyle.”

Thanks to this transformational surgical procedure, Juwan will be taking the field with the Brookwood Broncos this fall. Who knows where his next steps might lead him?