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ACL Treatment Decisions: Patient Experiences and Clinician Advice
This text is an excerpt from an original research article published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, focusing on Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury treatment decisions from the perspective of 734 Australian patients. The study employed a mixed-methods design, using both a survey and semi-structured interviews to explore patient beliefs and decision-making experiences regarding treatment options like ACL reconstruction (ACLR) or rehabilitation alone. Key findings indicate that a majority of patients reported that surgeons and other clinicians often presented surgery as the best or only option, frequently providing an unbalanced overview that did not fully align with current research evidence. Qualitative results emphasized that patient consultations often felt rushed and poorly informed, with clinicians tending to downplay the risks and impacts of surgery. Ultimately, the study concludes that a balanced, evidence-based overview of treatment options is necessary to enable informed decision-making for ACL rupture patients.
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