Diagnosis and treatment of anterior cruciate ligament injuries

  Diagnosis of anterior fork ligament injury: mainly based on the history of trauma, swelling, blood accumulation, pain or dysfunction of the joint, physical examination by a specialist, MRI results, etc.  Patients exhibit some specific symptoms that should draw our special attention.  If the patient has a history of knee injury, whether it is a sports injury or a traffic injury, when the x-ray shows no fracture, if the injured person has joint swelling, blood accumulation, pain or dysfunction, 70% to 80% of these patients have an anterior fork ligament injury; even if the swelling has subsided after the injury and they can continue to walk or run, the affected knee has recurrent sprains, or they are afraid to run at variable speed, afraid to turn and run, or afraid to participate in antagonistic sports Even if the swelling subsides, but the affected knee has recurrent sprains, or is afraid to run at speed, or to run in bends, or to participate in competitive sports, or has frequent joint “jams”, the likelihood of an ACL injury is 90%.  The diagnosis of ACL injury requires a comprehensive judgment by an experienced specialist, and for those patients with a high suspicion of ACL injury, even if the joint stability test is negative, there is no room for carelessness. When there is clinical suspicion of ACL injury, the affected limb should be temporarily braked and reexamined within two weeks, which can often lead to a clearer diagnosis.  Treatment of anterior fork ligament injury: conservative treatment and surgical treatment.  Indications for conservative treatment of ACL injury: The purpose of rehabilitation training and surgery is to restore the joint stability lost after ligament injury and rebuild the “functional stability” of the joint. The first step is to determine whether there is joint instability in patients with ACL injuries and the degree of motion of the joint instability. Joint instability is mainly manifested as walking movement “weak leg”, can not run fast, sharp turns, etc.. If the patient is able to avoid the symptoms of joint instability through functional exercise or by reducing the intensity of the exercise, conservative treatment with rehabilitation can be considered.  Indications for ACL reconstruction: those who have functional instability of the joint, i.e., cannot meet the joint function needed by the patient and cannot achieve the patient’s ideal level of life and sports; those who also have meniscal injury and undergo meniscal repair surgery (without satisfactory joint stability, it is difficult to repair the meniscus to heal); the indications for reconstruction are relatively relaxed for patients younger than 50 years old; whether to reconstruct patients over 50 years old needs to be considered The degree of degeneration and function of the knee joint before ACL injury, with a tendency to choose knee replacement surgery in the second stage if the degeneration is severe.  Surgical treatment of ACL injuries: Currently in the field of orthopedic sports medicine, minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques are performed to both reconstruct the ligament and simultaneously manage other combined injuries within the joint. Arthroscopic minimally invasive anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is technically mature with satisfactory results.