How does it get damaged?
Body-contact sports, road traffic accidents and awkward fall are the common causes of ACL injury.
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+91 86033 39713 305 Nakodar Chowk,Lajpat Nagar, JalandharThe bones in the knee (thighbone and legbone) are tied together by straps – called ligaments. Two important ligaments inside the knee are called ‘cruciates’ – because they form a cross. The one in front is called the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and the one behind is called the Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). Both are very important for knee function.
Body-contact sports, road traffic accidents and awkward fall are the common causes of ACL injury.
Many people can hear a ‘crack’ or ‘pop’ at the time of injury, followed by immediate swelling and pain. Players often have to be carried off the field.
Later, there will be pain, weakness and a peculiar looseness of knee (giving way) – the most disabling problem.
It depends on your disability and your activities. In brief, if you are engaged in lots of outdoor activities or involved in regular sports and fitness exercises then you need an operation to make (reconstruct) a new ligament. This applies to most young active people – specially the sportsmen.
However, if you have minimal symptoms, and have a sedentary lifestyle then you can manage with exercise, knee-support and some activity restrictions for the rest of the life. Generally, this is applicable to elderly persons.
The operation is done under general or regional anaesthesia. At first, the inside of the knee is examined by a thin telescope, which is introduced through a small puncture (arthroscopy). Next, a new ligament is prepared by taking a few fibers from the tendons around the knee. Generally the hamstring tendons from the back (or less commonly the patellar tendon from the front) are used.
This newly fashioned ligament is then placed inside the knee through the arthroscope, which grows and matures to take up the function of the original ligament.
Other than the disabilities like giving-way, pain, swelling, etc., it is said to be the ‘beginning of the end’ of the knee. The knee suffers repeated injuries because of its undue laxity and early arthritis sets in.
