Marcus Lattimore Knee injury

The most recent information on Marcus Lattimore's knee injury is that he sustained a knee dislocation without fracture.  This is a devastating injury for a high level athlete and likely jeopardizes his chances to play professionally. Knee dislocations are a complex injury requiring precise diagnosis of which structures are injured and subsequent surgical procedure/procedures to reconstruct and repair the involved structures.  By definition, a knee dislocation involves at least 3 of the 4 main ligaments in the knee.  The injuries sustained in a knee dislocation can include the cruciate (ACL, PCL) and collateral ligaments (MCL, LCL), posterolateral corner, menisci, articular cartilage, fractures, and vascular injuries just to name a few.  Most of the the research on these injuries involve significant traumatic injuries such as automobile accidents.  There are few papers on return to sports following knee dislocation. 

Hirschmann MT published an article in 2010 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine titled "Surgical Treatment of the Complex Bicruciate Knee Ligament Injuries in Elite Athletes: What Long-term Outcome Can we Expect?"  The results showed that only 8 of 24 athletes returned to their pre-injury level of sports activity.  This is dramatically different from isolated ACL injuries where almost all athletes return to their pre-injury level of play.  The athletes that had the best outcomes had early, open, complete single stage surgery.  Luckily Marcus will have the best care possible increasing his odds for a full recovery.  I am hoping that he proves the statistics wrong with a return to his football career.