An ACL injury is a tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) — one of the strong bands of tissue that help connect your thigh bone to your shinbone. ACL injuries most generally occur during sports that involve sudden stops or modifications in direction, jumping, and landing — such as soccer, basketball, football, and downhill skiing.
Many people hear a pop or feel a “popping” feeling in the knee when an ACL injury occurs. Your knee may swell, feel unstable, and become too painful to carry weight.
Depending on the harshness of your ACL injury, therapy may include rest and rehabilitation workouts to help you recover strength and stability or surgery to replace the torn ligament, followed by rehabilitation. A proper training program may help you to reduce the risk of an ACL injury.
Signs and symptoms of an ligament injury generally include:
Ligaments are powerful bands of tissue that connect one bone to another. The ACL, one of two ligaments that cross in the middle of the knee, links your thigh bone to your shinbone and helps stabilize your knee joint.
ACL injuries usually 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 tissue tear. A mild injury may stretch the ligament but leave it undamaged.
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 lower the risks.
Programs to reduce ACL injury include:
Training to strengthen muscles of the legs, hips, and core — as well as training to improve jumping and landing methods and to prevent inward movement of the knee — may help to reduce the higher ACL injury threat in female athletes.
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Most patients use crutches for one week but take weight on the leg immediately. You should be able to bear full weight without crutches after one week if possible.
An orthopedic doctor in Kanpur advises wearing a brace for three weeks following a hamstring reconstruction. Still, orthopaedic surgeons do not generally use a brace for other graft types.
You are not fit to drive until six weeks, except if you had a left knee surgery, you can drive an automatic after three weeks. You need to be able to stand on one leg for one minute to be fit to drive.
It is safe to allow at least one week before you resume your office duties. Light physical duties can resume at 6 weeks post-surgery, and a manual occupation is usually deferred until 12 weeks post-surgery.
Swimming and exercise bikes can start 6 weeks post-surgery. Jogging begins approximately 12 to 14 weeks post-surgery.
A return to competitive sports and twisting and turning activities is at 11 months post-surgery.
The ACL is most generally torn during sports that involve sudden stops or changes in direction.
With proper treatment and rehabilitation, you can start jogging again after your ACL tear has healed.
An ACL tear occurs in your knee. Immediately after an ACL tear, you will feel pain in your knee. You may also experience swelling and problems in walking.
When an ACL tears, you may hear a popping sound and feel pain in your knee.
It is best to see an orthopedic doctor in Kanpur for a proper diagnosis and treatment. Your orthopedic doctor in Kanpur will recommend imaging tests such as an MRI scan to confirm an ACL tear.
A grade 3 ACL tear is a complete anterior cruciate ligament tear.
While you can walk on a torn ACL, this may result in increased pain and further damage.
You will most probably require surgery to repair the ligament. With treatment and rehabilitation, you can restore the function of your knee and walk normally again.
Dr. Raghvendra Jaiswal has a rich experience in training house surgeons. He is trained in Computer Assisted Surgery(CAS). Dr. Raghvendra Jaiswa is one of Kanpur’s most experienced orthopaedic surgeons.