The knee is the most complex joint in the body, consisting of the femur, tibia, and patella, which contains the medial and lateral menisci and the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments.
1.What is anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is also known as the anterior cruciate ligament is an important stabilizing structure of the knee joint, and its main role is to limit the excessive forward movement of the tibia relative to the femur, and it is the most easily injured ligament in sports injuries of the knee joint.
2. Mechanism of injury
It occurs in young people who like to play sports, mostly due to sports injuries, such as basketball players landing after jumping, knee fractures during skiing, sprains during confrontation of soccer players, etc.
3.Clinical manifestations
Fresh injury – knee pain, swelling, inability to move
Obsolete injury – swelling and blood accumulation in the knee joint, joint instability; extremely easy to sprain when running fast and turning movement; C repeatedly swelling of the knee joint, fear of doing sharp stops, turning and other movements; C in severe cases, when walking also appears the feeling of knee instability.
4.Physical examination
Front drawer test
Lachman test
Axial shift test
5. Ancillary examinations.
Plain X-rays to exclude fractures, dislocations and other bony injuries
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) must be done
ACL fracture is manifested by signal interruption, edema or tortuosity on MRI.
Misconception.
The early part of ACL injury does not affect the normal daily work or perform light activities, go to the hospital to take an X-ray film did not find a fracture, often many people think there is nothing wrong.
But …….
Due to the obvious damage to the stability of the knee joint, it is not possible to carry out fast running, sharp turning and other movements. If at this time the seriousness of the injury is not realized and strenuous sports activities are carried out, it will further lead to meniscal damage, cartilage damage and serious development of osteoarthrosis. Therefore, if an ACL injury is found, it should be treated promptly according to the condition.
Treatment.
Conservative treatment: Applicable to the type of partial tear
Those that can maintain joint stability through exercise
Surgical treatment: complete rupture, partial tear but functional instability of the joint is present;
In the presence of meniscal damage;
ACL arthroscopic reconstructive surgery.
A new tendon is re-fixed between the femur and tibia to act as an anterior cruciate ligament. After reconstruction of the ligament, a brace is required for 2 months, and knee flexion and extension exercises with the brace are started right after surgery, and rehabilitation exercises are slowly started to return to the pre-injury level of motion 8-12 months after surgery.
In conclusion.
The ACL is important for knee stability and should be surgically reconstructed as soon as possible once the injury affects knee stability, with satisfactory postoperative results to restore the previous level of motion and avoid meniscal and cartilage damage.