Both me and my brother did a hamstring graft and we honestly could not be any happier. I had a pretty easy recovery because it was strictly acl nothing else, it was time consuming but straightforward.
Don't know how old you are but with a lot of younger people the cadaver is not fully accepted by your immune system and it can be difficult for it to grow as strong as it should be. The way my surgeon described it is that the grafts are like the skeleton of a new building (iron bars, sidewall, etc.) but in order for a building to be fully operational you need electric, water, plumbing, etc. which he said was the all the blood vessels and shit like that which will develop in the graft, which your body/immune system will develop over time. Therefore, in his opinion, (which i strongly agree with seeing as my reconstructed knee feels better than my other one 2 years outta surgery) it is safest/smartest to use a graft from your own body, so that it is accepted and strengthened naturally (I know several kids who did cadaver and it retore very easily, and ive also recently heard that theyve altogether stopped using cadavers on younger people.)
The problem with the patella the way i understand it is that it is MUCH more painful and MUCH more invasive for you knee. I did hamstring and although my hamstring felt like a wet noodle and my typically strong leg was pitifully atrophied, it was pretty easy to regain strength and range of motion (which i think is a little more difficult with the patella graft).
If you are still reading at this point i would HIGHLY recommend the hamstring graft, i tore it in december, did about a month of "prehab" (got range of motion and shit back before surgery making the recovery easier) had surgery in february, and was playing football in september as good/ as strong as i ever was and had an awesome ski season after that (although i took it somewhat easier in the park that year). I still wear my don joy brace but feel great about my knees and am not scared to do all the tricks i used to do
