Let me start by saying that this is my first and likely only Yelp review. I am writing it because of the scope of disappointment I experienced being a patient of Dr . Christian Peterson, who was my surgeon this past April for a torn ACL. I am just over 50 years of age and wanted to ensure that I had stability in my knee for the long haul. I asked many questions regarding options of treatment, as well as potential complications of surgery. I had an MRI done, and upon the feedback I received from Dr Peterson and my own research on line, I decided to have the restorative surgery done. I do not take surgeries lightly, I actually prefer not to have surgery if possible, but in this case, it seemed to be the best chance that my stability would not be at risk.
When I came out of surgery, completely out of it due to the lasting effects of anesthesia, Dr Peterson informed me that my ACL was only partially torn, and so he cleaned out scar tissue and that was it. No reconstruction was done as planned. It took me a few hours after surgery to even wrap my mind around what had happened. Once I had, I did some additional research on line, and found that the choice to leave a partially torn ACL as is rather than reconstruct it is based on where the tear is located, how severe, and whether the patient is at risk of lessened.
This possibility was never discussed with me prior to the surgery, even after having asked what the potential risks or outcomes could be. I was not given the opportunity to weigh in either way on whether I would want the full reconstruction done even in the case of a partial tear ( which I would have opted for). Instead, Dr Peterson made that decision on my behalf.
When I called the office to get more information about how the decision was made, it was somewhat difficult to get a confirmation that I would be able to speak with Dr Peterson prior to him leaving on vacation. He did end up calling me, and when I asked why he never informed me of the potential for this to be the case, even after he admitted that it was not an uncommon occurrence, he simply told me that he though it was better to keep the existing ACL even though it was partially torn, because it was always better to "keep the original parts". I expressed to him how upset and disappointed I was that he did not give me the opportunity to have input on this decision, and how I felt it was an important piece of information not to share prior ( as a common finding). To top,it off, since Dr Peterson was going on vacation the following week, I could not get a Post surgery appointment to see him on the usual cadence of 5 days so I saw him after he returned and this delayed my ability to schedule/ start Physical Therapy.
I went through 7 -8 weeks of physical therapy religiously and I am here to say that 8 months after Dr Peterson performed a "not-ACL restoration" surgery on my knee, I am still having issues with it being fully recovered and my stability is noticeably lessened. I should have done more research beforehand. I own that. This is for those of you who are doing your homework. I would (strongly) not recommend Dr Peterson. read more