https://paulnystrom.com/tags/acl/Recent content in ACL on Paul NystromHugoen-usSat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/mris-in-the-er/Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/mris-in-the-er/<p>There are only 2 MRIs that typically need to happen in the ER. Brains and spinal cords. There are virtually no extremity MRIs that have to happen emergently. I see patients regularly that have things that could be diagnosed on an MRI… rotator cuff tears, meniscus injuries, torn ACLs. But none of those things need emergency surgeries so they don’t need emergent MRIs. Patients often come to the ER within minutes of a knee injury and they may very well have a torn ACL. But I don’t have to find it immediately. No Ortho surgeon is rushing to the ER to fix it. You would not want them to in most cases. For things like rotator cuff tears and minor tendon or ligament tears, the first line of treatment is physical therapy and pain medicine. This is referred to as “conservative therapy”. Most of the time, this resolves the problem. Surgery is something to consider when conservative therapy fails. It is not the thing that has to happen immediately upon finding an injury.</p>