DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum No Surgery For Bentley-For Now and FO Moves Article

j/c

Source of info:

One of my buddies. I am a MD in North Carolina (I know some orthopedics/sports medicine but that isn't my specialty) I ran the Bentley case by one of my friends. He is an orthopedic surgeon and specializes in sports medicine. He is the orthopod I would go to if I needed one, the guy I send my toughest ortho cases to and when he was in philadelphia he took care of some of the eagles and flyers.

His opinion (clearly limited by the lack of available info):

Why would LCB need further surgery on his pateller tendon?

One reason would be if the reconnection of the tendon didn't take. If LCB is really able to run as reported then this is clearly not the case because if the tendon is not connected you can't run. If this was the case there would be no reason to consider not having the surgery because he wouldn't be able to walk either.

Reason #2 would be stiffness of the tendon. The complication of the staph infection could make the stiffness worse, so this is on the surface compatible. However, the recovery time for this kind of surgery is typically a few weeks. No way would he be at risk for missing this season let alone end his career if this was why he might need another surgery.

So why would he need another knee surgery? Well the given the tremendous amount of force required to rupture the patellar tendon there are often other knee structures damaged. In this case most likely his ACL. This is pretty consistent with what we have heard. He would be able to run on it - straight line running isn't that difficult, (the ACL comes much more into play with trying to make cuts) so not as bad an injury for a lineman as say a Rb though still serious. If he strengthened the rest of the knee he might be able to play with an ACL injury but maybe not and therefore may need another surgery. If he did undergo ACL surgery he would be out for 2007 potentially forever. And with injuries like this with the patela tendon rupture, often other injuries are not found on early evaluations explaining why it wasn't repaired when LCB had his initial surgery.

My buddy also commented on how tams hide the true nature of injuries. How they will report an injury as say a shoulder bruise then a couple weeks later it turns out to have been a rotator cuff tear (as the team knew all along) and the guy is now post-op.

Thanks for the knowledge. It's cool to have people who know things post.

About the ACL. That could very well be true. Who knows......he could have had ACL injury before he even signed here...................

True......or he could have done it falling off a bike 2 weeks before camp. No telling.