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Imagine running down the court with the ball, and all of a sudden you fall, and as u attempt to get up you feel excruciating pain in your left knee. You immediately notice that your knee is starting to swell, and that it is not functioning like normal. You have torn your ACL. When you twist your knee or fall on it, you can tear a stabilizing ligament that connects your thighbone to the shinbone known as your ACL. Ligaments are tough, non-stretchable fibers that hold your bones together. The cruciate ligaments in your knee joints crisscross to give you stability on your feet. The function of the ACL is to provide stability to the knee and minimize stress across the knee joint. It restrains excessive forward movement of the lower leg bone (the tibia) in relation to the thighbone (the femur) and it also limits rotational movements of the knee. A tear to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) results from overstretching of this ligament within the knee. ACL repair is most commonly referred to as ACL Reconstruction because simply sewing the tears together again cannot repair the ACL. There are several ways to reconstruct a tear in the ACL, such as substituting a new ligament to replace the torn one, which can be done by Using tendons from other parts of the body as a substitute for the ACL known as an autograft, or using the ligament from a cadaver which is known as an allograft. Most ACL cases are done as arthroscopic procedures to reduce postoperative pain. The main purpose of ACL Reconstruction is to reduce pain and swelling and regain range of motion and strength.
Although the knee joint may look like a simple joint, it is one of the most complex. Moreover, the knee is more likely to be injured than is any other joint in the body. We tend to ignore our knees until something happens to them that cause pain. The knee is essentially made up of four bones. The femur, which is the large bone in your thigh, attaches by ligaments and a capsule to your tibia. Just...