UPDATE: Thank you all for the great advice and perspectives.
We ended up choosing the lateral fabellar repair over TPLO. I was leery of TPLO because I did not want the osteotomy and increased risk of complications, and the significantly greater expense of the surgery.
The primary criticism I had found of the lateral fabellar repair was that it was not recommended for dogs over 50 lbs (Liesl weighs 80 lbs), apparently because it was felt that they weighed too much for the 40 and 60 lb monofilaments being used. However, it was considered the gold standard repair technique before the TPLO was developed. The advent of the tightrope, using an extra strong braided filament, and its success stories, seemed to indicate that a LF repair using a stronger monofilament might have a greater chance of success than it was previously thought to have with larger dogs.
I spoke with several vets and surgeons and found a vet, not ortho, who had experience and success doing LF repairs in larger dogs, using 80 lb test monofilament. He told me that there is a company which makes 100 lb test for this surgery, and he was willing to use this for Liesl (at a much more reasonable price than the orthos wanted for TPLO).
After reading more of the literature comparing outcomes of these two techniques I felt that the LF was overall the best solution for us. It is less invasive than TPLO; the 100 lb test has virtually no chance of breakage in an 80 lb dog, recovery time would be quicker, and the cost was about 45% less than the price of a TPLO at the respected ortho hospitals.
Her pre-op workup was uneventful. An incidental finding from her pre-op x-ray was that her right hip (bad stifle) was great, but her left hip had early dysplasia, predicted to become a problem for her potentially in 3-5 years. She had a complete rupture of the cruciate, but no meniscal damage, and only a little arthritis beginning in her joint. The vet told me after surgery that her sound meniscus was instrumental in helping her have a positive result so far--if it had been damaged there would have been another source of instability potentially complicating the recovery.
Liesl had her LF repair two weeks ago, on 1/7/14. She was placed in a very substantial padded bandage that acted a bit like a cast and provided support for her stifle. She was walking on the leg from the 2nd day after surgery, although gingerly. She required anti-inflam, pain meds, and prophylactic abx, but had no complications. We kept her under strict control and observation--leash or crate only, even when lying on her pillow, and short walks only to potty.
The bandage was removed one week later and she limped a bit more due to the loss of that support, but still walked willingly on the leg, and improved quickly. We did not have to do any warm or cold compresses, and she walked around the house enough that we did not have to do any ROM for her, although I did some anyway to be sure she wasn't getting tight. We started walking just a few feet or so down the street, but have increased now to walking about a quarter of a mile twice a day, on level paved streets.
Today we got the steel staples removed, uneventfully. Our biggest problem over the last few days has been keeping her from overusing the leg. She wants to run, jump, chase squirrels, etc. She still limps slightly on it and is not putting full weight on it obviously, but she has improved steadily since the surgery, and her atrophied leg muscles seem to be coming back. When she walks it is with a full stride, normal extension and bending of the stifle, and enough weight put on that leg that her limp is barely noticeable. She uses the leg to squat and relieve herself without problems.
I am aware that we are not out of the woods yet, but I am very, very pleased with our result so far. I will post some vids of her walking on YouTube soon and link them here. I plan to periodically post vids of her recovery, good or bad, and discuss it frankly here, so others who face this in the future will have this input regarding lateral fabellar repair with a stronger monofilament to consider when deciding what surgery to choose.