About Your Anterior Cruciate Ligament - By: Clement Farley

Amongst the most prevalent injuries that both sports athletes as well as sports enthusiasts suffer from is the anterior cruciate ligament or ACL tear. This ligament plays a huge role on the stability of the knee. So, if your ACL gets injured, you can just imagine the pain you have to endure. This is why when you tear your ACL, you should not ignore it. Get medical assistance right away.

Importance Of ACL

ACL is responsible for controlling the knee’s forward motion. This ligament joins your shin bone, which is known as tibia to the thigh bone, known as the femur. The ACL works together with the PCL or posterior cruciate ligament to keep the knee stable and control its movement. The ACL can easily be injured when there is a sudden movement on the knee such as twisting or when the knee suffered a serious blow. When this happens, you'll feel your knee buckle and wobbly, making it hard and painful for you to stand or walk.

Signs And Symptoms Of An ACL Injury

The most common symptom of an anterior cruciate ligament injury is the loud snapping or popping sound. Then your knee starts to buckle and a severe pain will likely be experienced. This can be followed by swelling and bruising on the area of the knee where it is injured. Should the patient attempts to walk or stand up, he or she will feel tremendous amount of pain. Also, the knee will be wobbly and it can be impossible for the patient to stand or walk. Therefore, when you experience any one of these symptoms, you must call the doctor right away.

Treatment Of An ACL Injury

Dependant upon the degree of the injury, the individual might need a knee brace or surgery. Seldom can you find a case where the patient just has to rest and wear a brace so as to recover. Most often, a person who has a ruptured ACL must go through surgery. The surgery is done so that the ligament can be reconstructed making the knee stable and strong. There are two ways to repair the torn ligament, one is through making incisions and placing an instrument inside the knee to make it stable whilst the other is by taking out the ligament and replacing it with a graft. More often than not, the patient is not required to stay in the hospital following the surgery. Nevertheless, he or she must undergo long and arduous rehabilitation.

Therefore, when you are either active in sports or have a career as an athlete, you will need to care for your anterior cruciate ligament. Female athletes are usually more susceptible to having an ACL injury than men. Training and performing knee exercises together with a healthy diet can tremendously reduce the risk of having an ACL tear.

About the Author

Clement Farley is inviting all patients recovering from an ACL injury to come and visit his website at http://aclanteriorcruciateligament.com/. Discover the secrets of quick and painless ACL injury recovery, and get back to playing the sports you love, now!

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Clement-Farley/166168

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