I. What is the cruciate ligament? As we know, the knee joint is the main weight-bearing joint of the human body, and its stability directly affects people’s daily life, while the stability of the knee joint is mainly controlled by the ligaments around the knee joint, mainly the cruciate ligament and the medial and lateral collateral ligaments. The anterior cruciate ligament, also known as the cruciate ligament, is located in the knee joint, starting from the medial aspect of the lateral femoral condyle and ending at the medial intercondylar spine of the tibial plateau, and its function is to limit excessive forward displacement of the tibia, which is the main stabilizing structure of the knee joint. Simply put, the cruciate ligament is a strong ligament that links the distal thigh bone to the proximal calf bone, keeping the knee joint stable. Injury or even rupture of this ligament can cause a number of problems for the knee joint. Second, a laceration of the cruciate ligament? As described in the case above, most ACL injuries occur during sports and fitness activities; injuries are most common in sports with sharp stops and turns, such as basketball, soccer, rugby and volleyball. ACL injuries can be classified as incomplete tears, complete tears, or even bone avulsions at the point of ligament attachment. When the ACL is not completely torn, the patient is able to stop high-intensity sports and the continuity of the ligament is still acceptable by MRI, and can usually recover well from the partial tear by taking a long time off and relying on physical therapy and other conservative treatment methods; however, when a complete tear of the ACL occurs or a bone avulsion injury is found, the ruptured ACL cannot heal back directly If left untreated, the stability of the knee joint will further decrease, and friction with the cartilage and meniscus within the knee joint will occur, leading to cartilage and meniscal damage, which are the causes of knee osteoarthritis later on. Therefore, if you want to restore the original function of the ligament to the maximum extent and reduce the damage to the knee joint, most of them need to be treated with ligament substitutes, such as synthetic ligaments, and ligament reconstruction surgery. Third, surgical treatment of cruciate ligament rupture. Minimally invasive knee arthroscopy is often used to treat cruciate ligament ruptures. Through the precise positioning of the knee arthroscope, the surgeon then bores tunnels into your thigh and calf bones to place the ligaments, and then fixes them to the bone with screws and other fixation devices. After surgery, you can play sports a month later, and athletes are usually able to return to play six to 12 weeks after surgery. A cruciate ligament injury, however, typically requires 6 to 12 months of recovery and rehabilitation time before returning to participate in sports that require sharp turns and stops. If the medial ligament is injured, the minimum time off is 6 to 8 weeks, which is the time normally required for the ligament to heal. The length of time is not absolutely constant and varies from person to person. However, strict post-operative rehabilitation is the key to restoring stability and function to the knee joint after ACL reconstruction surgery. Within the first few weeks after surgery, systematic rehabilitation exercises are needed to try to restore the mobility of the knee on the operated side to a level comparable to that of the opposite side. 4. How to prevent cruciate ligament injury? For athletes, cruciate ligament injury means having to leave the field temporarily; for us, the general public, cruciate ligament injury, time-consuming and laborious, so what are the best ways to prevent cruciate ligament injury in general? In fact, the core of injury prevention is the phrase: the best way to prevent cruciate ligament injuries is to strengthen the muscles on the front and back side of the thigh. Only with stronger muscles around the knee joint will there be enough cushion to keep the cruciate ligament intact when a knee injury occurs. Here is a list of some precautions to prevent cruciate ligament injuries. 1.Avoid or reduce some movements that are more damaging to the knee joint, and strengthen the muscles around the knee joint; 2.Avoid or reduce the movement of sharp stop or steering – standing firmly on the ground and turning the leg in other directions such as soccer or basketball players sharp stop and quick change of direction; 3.Avoid or reduce the movement of straight knee landing — landing with the knee straight, such as a skier landing after a jump or a gymnast landing on a vault; 4. Avoiding or reducing lateral landing maneuvers when the knee is hyperextended — a sudden stop with the leg in hyperextension, such as a baseball player sliding sideways 5. Avoid or reduce rotation and sudden deceleration – sudden deceleration and foot twisting can lead to excessive knee rotation, such as a sudden burn turn by a soccer or rugby player; 6. It is recommended that when landing on the ground for sports, you should land forefoot first, knee bent and torso slightly forward. Avoid lateral or back-and-forth knee movements whenever possible. Remember not to twist the knee inward when landing and to minimize the impact. The above briefly introduces the problem of knee ligament injury prevention. We hope that you will do a good job of knee health care in your daily life, move reasonably, reduce or avoid some movements that have a high impact on the knee joint, and when early symptoms of discomfort appear, treat them as soon as possible to achieve better recovery!