Eagles “Forgot” To Mention Brandon Graham’s Microfracture Surgery

Last year, nearing the end of the season on December 12th, Eagles rookie defensive end Brandon Graham tore his ACL in his knee, but was that all that happened?

Yes, that’s Brandon Graham’s surgically repaired knee under there.

I’ve torn my ACL/MCL and torn my meniscus, this is not a fun surgery, but even worse was the rehab, hands down.  It’s a tough surgery to come back from, which physically takes about 8-12 months to fully recover from.  Never mind how long it takes you to get back mentally, which probably take a year and half to get confidence back in the knee.  Even without complications, Graham most likely wouldn’t be ready for the start of this season anyway….then news broke this week.

Graham on top of his ACL surgery is also having the terrifying micro-fracture surgery on the same knee.  Funny, the Eagles never mentioned this until it came to light this past week.  Micro-fracture surgery usually take around the same recovery time as an ACL surgery, but the response the body has to the surgery is far less predictable than that of just ACL surgery.  Essentially holes are drilled into the underlying bone in hopes that the holes will spring new life for cartilage to grow (what happened, I blacked out). Apparently the need for this surgery was discovered when the doctors went in for the ACL surgery and noticed a need for the micro-fracture surgery.  The popularity of the surgery has surged lately as it is a minimally invasive surgery that usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes to finish and with its success rate is an easier option than knee replacement.

Weird, the Eagles seemed to have “forgotten” to mention this during their December 22nd press conference when they made statements about Graham’s knee….

“Brandon Graham had his knee repaired and that was successful – Anterior Crucial Ligament and Dr. (James) Andrews did that. And they’re both resting well right now, so they’ll get on the rehab as soon as they possibly can.” -Andy Reid (December 22, 2010)

Huh. No mention of micro-fracture surgery from the Coach. It must have been left off his laminated notes sheet for that press conference.  Fairly shady move to not mention it, and I see no reason to cover it up, except for that fact that we probably won’t be seeing Graham until at least half way through this season. At least I suppose the Eagles didn’t give us the typical Flyers injury update of a “lower body injury”.

Keep in mind that this is the same surgery that has kept Victor Abiamiri from returning to action. But as many unsuccessful surgeries come from micro-fracture i.e. Abiamiri and Greg Oden, there are more success stories than not.  Some of those including Amare Stodemire, Hope Solo, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin.  Let’s hope Brandon ends up in the success stories rather than the Oden hemisphere.

  Thanks to Crossing Broad for the tip…..http://www.crossingbroad.com/2011/07/brandon-graham-had-microfracture-surgery.html