Whats the recovery time for an ACL tear or injury to the leg?

surgery vs nonsurgery?

Despite what the media says, an ACL tear is not an emergency. John Elway played his college and pro career without an ACL in one knee.

In athletics, the primary concern regarding ACL injuries is your ability to plant and cut. Without an ACL, your knee becomes unstable when you decelerate and cut sharply. For straight ahead activity many people function fine without one. Some people tear their ACL and never know it.

Over time, an unstable knee is prone to more problems including cartilage tears and eventual osteoarthritis. Thus if you are very active and plan to stay that way, it is best to fix it while you are young.

For a surgical repair, give yourself 6 months before planning to return to full-speed cutting activities. There are some Doc's who will tell you less, but be cautious and don't get overanxious. I definitely think big people (linemen) take longer due to the pounding of body mass. Rehab may go well, but the knee is still healing. A good rehab specialist will read your knee and modify your rehab as able. Although you may be able to play a sport in 6 months, many will tell you that it takes about a year before you truely feel like your old self.

Non-operative is a little different. The key is keeping your muscular strength. (Quads & Hamstrings) Also proprioceptive (balance) exercises. A prescription type brace is advised for competitive sports.

A frustrating term is "partial tear of the ACL". You have to treat these not operatively, but eventually most fail and become complete tears. A good Orthopedic Surgeon can determine the difference between an injury and instability. Unstabile knees need to be fixed.

An advantage of surgery is to avoid being "brace-dependant" later in life.

It depends on a few factors like, age, fitness level at recovery time and level of injury. Can take 6 weeks to 4 months.

If it's completely torn, only surgery will work. The longer you let it go, the longer it takes to heal after surgery. I had surgery in January. Getting better every month. The longer it's torn, the more damage it does internally - torn cartilage, arthritis, torn meniscus. Remember, the acl is THE major moving part of the knee. If it doesn't work right - nothing will. I found out I even had a fracture 2 inches below the knee, in the leg because of the torn acl. I waited 5 years to have this fixed.

I agree that it depend on the severity of the tear, your age, and activity level.
If the ACL is completly torn then surgery is usually the only option if u wish to be active with sports.
any ligament injury to the knee will take about 6-12 weeks to heal depending on the severity and location of the injury. This is because the ligaments in the knee aren't supplied with as much blood flow as other ligaments in the body. With Surgery recovery time depends mostly on age and activity level as well as what kind of damage was caused by the injury. and how long was waited before having the surgery.

Best of LUck to you

It depends on a whole lot of things and I will agree with the other answers that were given to you.