​Lee enjoys his sports, particularly Brazilian JiuJitsu, and regularly participates competitively. Unfortunately Lee sustained a major knee ligament injury whilst training, which was preventing him from continuing. The injury was so severe that initially he could not even stand up.

He said “I heard a loud pop and immediately knew the injury was nasty. I went to stand up and just fell over!”

Lee went to see a local knee surgeon who assessed his case. The surgeon concluded that the injury was very complex, with up to four ligaments damaged, and as such Lee needed expert treatment. Because of this, he referred Lee to Professor Wilson, who specialises in multi-knee ligament damage.

Professor Wilson initially hoped to repair Lee’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), an operation he regularly undertakes in such cases, but there was not enough tissue. As a result, he instead performed a ligament reconstruction.

Professor Wilson explains: “As there was insufficient tissue for an ACL repair, we elected to go for a 4-strand hamstrings graft, reconstruction reinforced with FiberTape.”

During the same operation, Professor Wilson also fixed the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in Lee’s knee with a staple and used an internal brace over the top to reinforce the repair. Lee also had a lateral tear to the meniscus in his knee, which was repaired using the all-inside method. Finally, the cartilage covering one of the bones in Lee’s knee joint was addressed with a chondroplasty, which involved removing loose flaps of cartilage and smoothing damaged areas.

Lee’s operation took place in May 2018. The operation went well, and Lee’s recovery has been fantastic.

Lee said “I expected recovery to be a long process, but I knew I could recover far quicker than the average person with the way I was going to approach my rehab & the effort I was prepared to put in. I was back to light training Brazilian JiuJitsu in 4 months and I have gradually built it up a little bit more every month and managed to compete after 7 ½ months.”

Professor Wilson concludes: “I am so pleased to see Lee back competing in the sport he loves. I am frequently referred patients with complex ligament injuries from by other knee surgeons. I use my own Internal Brace reconstruction technique, where I combine fibre tape with ligament reconstruction to reinforce the ligament and improve long term results. This technique has revolutionised the outcome and recovery of multi-ligament surgery and is used by surgeons around the world in preference to traditional reconstruction techniques.”