acl repair or not to repair?

Hey gentlemen,  Quick question for all of those that have had knee problems.  I tore my acl when i was in college but never had it repaired.  Well 20 years later my knee is bothering me and now that i am trying to get/stay in shape it has become bothersome.  ( also grinding noise is freaking out the wife at inoppurtune times)I talked with the doc 4 years ago when he cleaned up the same knee and he explained the long extensive rehab for this procedure.  To make a long story short I am on disability for my back and figure why not use the time to fix my knee up. question is, has anyone out there had an acl repaired and did it help in the long run?

If you find out let me know, I am going to see the orth surgeon next week (10/4) for the same thing acl from about 20 yrs ago. Also to fix meniscal degeneration with partial loss of meniscal cartilage.(posterior horn) I hope that this does not change or get in the way of wls (not scheduled yet)  still waiting for approval.

First time down the ski slope after attending ski school, I had a major crash and torn my ACL. That was 10 years ago. The doctor said at "46" I was too old to have the surgery!!! Too OLD! Well, Now at age 56 it's beginning to bother me. I wish I had had it done! I'd do it if I had the time and the energy for the rehab which is intensive! My partner had it at age 25 and he still skis and is glad he had it done!

I am an orthopedic surgical tech. I specialize in orthopedic surgery. I assist in surgery and have done my fair share of ACLs, knee scopes, total joint, etc. 10 years ago at 46 you woulda been "too old" to have it done. When I was training, exactly 10 years ago, the oldest you would see was 30 or so. Now we do them on older patients because people are alot more active when they are older. Since it happened awhile ago chances are it scarred down the PCL and that has accomodated you to survive without it for so long. I would say that the doc would not fix it. If your knee is stable there is no need to.  The pain could be a meniscus tear that you suffered when you tore the ACL or anytime in between. the grinding is more or less arthritis. Being a former fat guy you probably trashed your patella-femoral groove. It's the groove that your patella tracks through when you walk. Almost all obese people have it. It's inevitable. I would go to the orthopod, ask him to check it out, and get a knee scope. As you know, just the clean out of a knee scope tends to help out and gives people more time before they have to decide on replacements. Just so you know also that you can live without the ACL, when we totals half of our docs do ACL sacrficing, when they cut the ACL during the procedure, because technically it is not needed.