The Cost of an ACL Injury

We hear about medical tourism from the US to India, Thailand, etc., but with these kinds of price discrepancies between the US and UK private practices, I wonder why there aren't more Americans who go to the UK for surgery?

Some do, and it appears he was only billed for the ones that don't. For blades and other sharp things, it's probably cheaper to just use new ones than to have the equipment and staff to sharpen old ones. Some of the other stuff, I suspect, isn't autoclave-able, which is the standard for sterilizing surgical stuff. That pretty much precludes reuse of plastic things, for example.

I had this exact same surgery 7 years ago after tearing ACL/meniscus playing basketball. Patellar tendon graft FTW! (I joke that real men donate their own tissues)

For me, the ACL has been perfect ever since. Wish I could say the same for my meniscus and cartilage - I subsequently tore my meniscus 2 more times (each time in a non-vascular area so they just sanded it down, no sutures like you had), and then 5 years later I tore a chunk out of my articular cartilage that had probably been weakened years before when I did my ACL.

That led to an OATS procedure where they took bone plugs from a non-weight bearing part of the knee and transplanted them in holes bored where the lesion was. That last procedure was pretty fun as it entailed 6 weeks on crutches, non-weight bearing, during which period my wife and I had our first kid (yay for timing!).

Anyway, that just to say hang in there (I imagine your rehab is pretty much over by this point, but it probably still aches?), and I hope your ACL graft (good call with the patellar) holds up as well as mine and your meniscus better. Oh and enjoy the achiness that comes with changing weather. I was rather amused that that apparently is a real thing. :)

I've heard from someone who was involved in this that sterilizing medical equipment that you can't autoclave is seriously non-trivial.

And certainly not free, nor is autoclaving, including the inevitable human errors that will result in incompletely sterilized equipment, plus there are all sorts of tradeoffs made here. I'm just old enough to have had glass syringes used on me, they're thick, heavy and obviously much more easily broken, which is less than ideal for taking blood and the like.

One other advantage of disposables: you can more afford to stock up a lot in case you need to surge after a disaster, they'll get used in the normal course of operations. Whereas the reusable stuff is generally/always? more expensive up front.

I had ACL & torn miniscus surgery 16 months ago and live in Canada, here are my experiences (excellent breakdown btw). It changed my life in many ways, but that's another story.

Though surgery is voluntary and I injured it playing soccer, the operation is covered by Medicare (which is a mandatory $64/month as I am self-employed).

So not including opportunity costs for missed work and time for pre and post-op doctor's visits (about 8 of them), my costs not covered were: - Post-surgery pain killers: $30 for T3's for a week. I refused the Percocet's, although the pain was bad I could still sleep. - Physio visits. They'd have you 2-3X per week for the whole duration if they had it their way, at $70 per appointment. I can't afford that, so I went once a week for three months = $840. - I declined the $900 custom knee brace that helps you get back playing sports sooner. - Rental of crutches for two months $25

And crutches are NOT as easy as I once thought, when you'd hop around on hour friends crutches for a few steps. I'm pretty fit, but a few blocks in them has you sore and sweating. Take care of those knees!!