What is an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury?

No athlete ever wants to hear the acronym ‘ACL’ pass their doctor’s lips.   It’s a fairly common injury which can change a franchise’s outlook (as discussed in this space), devastate an athlete’s psyche and cause great anxiety for a fantasy team manager.

Shatter the Glass provides an overview of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries belowwith an assist from University Hospital’s YouTube channel:

What is an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL)?

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. It’s function is critical to the stabilization of the knee required for rigorous exercise.

The ACL connects the femur to the tibia and, when intact, prevents the knee joint from allowing anterior movement of the tibia. This means the joint should prevent the lower leg from forward movement independent of the whole leg and prevent the knee from excessive rotation.  

This is video of how an orthopedist will diagnose an ACL injury before ordering a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI):

Ricky Rubio just after suffering a season-ending ACL tear.

How do basketball players hurt their ACL?
The most common way for a player to injure the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is by landing awkwardly from a jump or a sudden rotation or pivot where the force exceeds that which your knee joint can absorb and displace.

How do you fix a torn ACL?
After the ACL is torn and diagnosed surgery is typically performed. At this point a person’s ACL is either ‘repaired’ if the ligament is in some form intact. Most athletes, however, will have theirs ‘reconstructed’.

Either a structure within the injured knee will be partially utilized, like a piece of the patellar tendon — the structure connecting your quadricep muscle to your knee– or a structure outside the affected knee like a piece of the hamstring.

Below is a brief discussion of ACL restructuring:

How is ACL injury rehab undertaken?

Below is a brief discussion of ACL rehab:

Special Thanks to Donald B. Goodfellow, MD, University Hospitals Department of Orthopaedics

http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityHospitals