Addressing a torn anterior cruciate ligament
Written by:The anterior cruciate ligament is a ligament located inside the knee joint, responsible for giving stability. Its main function is to prevent the leg is moved forward relative to the thigh.
This ligament is anchored to the femur on the one hand and on the other, to the tibia. Ligament rupture can be partial or complete. Depending on the degree of breakage, if there are other broken knee ligaments and muscle strength of the patient, may show signs of varying intensity that will affect one way or another patient.
Common causes of anterior cruciate ligament rupture
In most cases ruptured ACL to a sports injury should. It is a particularly common injury in sports impact on knees with sudden changes of direction or jumps are overloaded: football, skiing, basketball, etc.
How to know that this is a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament
Upon breakage intense pain in the knee that is accompanied by inflammation occurs, because of the accumulation of blood inside the knee. Because of the pain and inflammation it is difficult to move the knee.
Following recovery from the acute injury the patient may notice instability (feeling that the knee bends and yields involuntarily and abruptly). Sometimes people with ligament rupture may have crises of pain and swelling in the knee after performing a sporting activity.
How to deal with a torn anterior cruciate ligament
At the time of breaking when there is high joint inflammation, usually evacuate blood from inside the knee with a syringe (arthrocentesis) procedure pain relief achieved. Immobilization of the knee is also performed by the specialist in traumatology. Such detention should not exceed 3 weeks and be accompanied by anti-inflammatories.
After immobilization, whether you opt for surgery as if it is not advisable controlled rehabilitation exercises, which will restore movement and strengthen the muscles of the thigh and leg. Moreover, the decision to reconstruct the ligament surgery will be taken depending on many factors: the extent of the injury, symptoms that result, the sporting activity of the patient, etc.
Plasty surgeries and available to meet the torn anterior cruciate ligament
Surgery of the anterior cruciate ligament is to remove the remains of damaged ligament and replace it with a new one. The new ligament is constructed from extracted tendons usually from other parts of the injured knee. However, there is also the possibility also extracted using cadaver tendons.
Depending on the particular case will opt for plasty of:- Reconstruction of HTH (bone-tendon-bone)- RI-ST (gracilis and semitendinosus)- QT (quadriceps)
Modern techniques of double tunnel or tunnel anatomical placement of the femoral tunnel is currently used, which provides better rotational stability of the plasty.
