Your knee may swell, feel unstable and become too painful to bear weight. Depending on the severity of your ACL injury, treatment may include rest and rehabilitation exercises to help you regain strength and stability, or surgery to replace the torn ligament followed by rehabilitation.
A proper training program may help reduce the risk of an ACL injury. Signs and symptoms of an ACL injury usually include:. Seek immediate care if any injury to your knee causes signs or symptoms of an ACL injury. The knee joint is a complex structure of bones, ligaments, tendons and other tissues that work together. It's important to get a prompt and accurate diagnosis to determine the severity of the injury and get proper treatment.
Ligaments are strong bands of tissue that connect one bone to another. The ACL , one of two ligaments that cross in the middle of the knee, connects your thighbone to your shinbone and helps stabilize your knee joint. ACL injuries often happen during sports and fitness activities that can put stress on the knee:.
When the ligament is damaged, there is usually a partial or complete tear of the tissue. A mild injury may stretch the ligament but leave it intact. There are a number of factors that increase your risk of an ACL injury, including:. People who experience an ACL injury have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knee. Arthritis may occur even if you have surgery to reconstruct the ligament.
Multiple factors likely influence the risk of arthritis, such as the severity of the original injury, the presence of related injuries in the knee joint or the level of activity after treatment. Proper training and exercise can help reduce the risk of ACL injury. A sports medicine physician, physical therapist, athletic trainer or other specialist in sports medicine can provide assessment, instruction and feedback that can help you reduce risks.
Training to strengthen muscles of the legs, hips and core — as well as training to improve jumping and landing techniques and to prevent inward movement of the knee — may help to reduce the higher ACL injury risk in female athletes. Wear footwear and padding that is appropriate for your sport to help prevent injury. If you downhill ski, make sure your ski bindings are adjusted correctly by a trained professional so that your skis will release appropriately if you fall.
After the swelling goes down, someone with an ACL tear usually can walk. But the knee may feel unstable and can "give way" and make the person stumble or fall. ACL tears happen most often during sports that have turning, cutting, and pivoting movements like skiing , soccer , football , basketball , and tennis.
Girls tear their ACL more often than guys do. To diagnose a torn ACL, health care providers ask about the injury and do a physical exam. During the exam, the health care provider presses on the knee and legs and moves them in certain ways. These tests can show if the ACL is torn. Most partial tears can be treated with bracing and physical therapy PT. A person might need to use crutches as the tear heals. The graft can be a tendon, from the patient's own body called an autograft or from someone else who donated the tendon called an allograft.
ACL repair surgery is usually done arthroscopically. This type of surgery is done using a tiny camera called an arthroscope and small instruments that are inserted through small incisions cuts.
Recovery from ACL surgery can take 6—12 months. If you have an ACL repair, you may use crutches and a leg brace after surgery. Your provider may send you for an MRI of the knee. This can confirm the diagnosis. It may also show other knee injuries. First aid for an ACL injury may include:. Some people can live and function normally with a torn ACL. However, most people complain that their knee is unstable and may "give out" with physical activity.
Unstable knee after ACL tears can lead to further knee damage. You are also less likely to return to the same level of sports without the ACL. Get immediate medical attention if the foot is cool and blue after a knee injury. This means that the knee joint may be dislocated, and blood vessels to the foot may be injured.
This is a medical emergency. Use proper techniques when playing sports or exercising. Some college sports programs teach athletes how to reduce stress placed on the ACL.
This involves a series of warm up exercises and jumping drills. There are jumping and landing exercises that have been shown to reduce ACL injuries. The use of knee braces during vigorous athletic activity such as football is controversial. It has not been shown to reduce the number of knee injuries, but not specifically ACL injuries.
Bolgla LA. Gender issues in ACL injury. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap Brotzman SB.
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