The ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) is a ligament in the center of your knee. The ACL gets damaged when twisted too far, which makes it a common injury in relation to sports or other physical activity. ACL Reconstruction is performed using a combination of open surgery and arthroscopic surgery. Before ACL reconstruction process begins, your surgeon will examine your knee arthroscopically, and repair any additional damage to the knee, such as a torn meniscus, or worn articular cartilage.

The ACL is the Anterior Cruciate Ligament. There are more than 4 major ligaments that essentially hold the knee together. Without one of more of these ligaments the knee would be loose and you would perceive that the knee was giving way or buckling. The ACL is the most commonly torn knee ligament. The ACL is usually torn as the result of a non-contact twisting injury. You will usually feel or hear a pop, the knee will buckle and within a short period of time, significant swelling will occur.

There are two large ligaments inside your knee each about the size of your little finger that cross deep inside the joint. They are called the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) and go from the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone). They serve to stabilize the knee and allow it to glide through a smooth range of motion as you bend and straighten the leg. The ACL is the ligament in the front and the one most commonly injured.

The anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is one of four major ligaments in the knee that provide stability to the joint. When a patient sustains a tear to the ACL, a sensation of instability, or giving out, may develop in the injured knee. In order to restore stability to the knee, your doctor may recommend an ACL reconstruction to insert a new ligament in the place of the damaged ACL.

The anterior cruciate ligament is made of a tough, fibrous tissue that spans the knee joint, attaching to the femur (thigh bone) on top, and the tibia (shin bone) below. The ligament itself is made of thousands of individual fibers, that together form the ACL. Some of these fibers are organized into distinct bundles. The normal ACL has two primary bundles of fibers. These bundles are positioned closely together, in some patients with normal ACLs it can be difficult to discern distinct bundles.

No. Many ACL tears can be treated non-operatively. Many factors go into the decision making process. Some patients have ACL tears and no instability symptoms. Others are profoundly symptomatic, even with simple stair climbing, turning and twisting. We do not know why some people are more symptomatic than others, which is why surgery is not the right answer for everybody.

Most ACL tears can be detected by experienced examiners as the knee joint will undergo abnormal movements when stressed. There is a variation in the normal range of these tests so the amount of movement is compared to the other knee. Sometimes these tests can be inconclusive immediately after an injury, due to excessive swelling.

a general rule, the body cannot repair a torn ACL if the tear is complete. Partial tears may sometimes heal but often will progress to becoming complete tears. If surgery is needed, the surgeon will not repair the ligament directly, as this has a low success rate, but will instead use a nearby tendon to reconstruct the original ligament. Your future demands in multi-directional sport.

ACL injury is associated with multidirectional sport (football, basketball, netball and skiing particularly), so refraining from these sports is a way to prevent injury, but often not acceptable to athletes. The mechanism of injury is often getting the foot caught in the ground while the body moves in another direction. In football, wearing boots with shorter stops helps prevent the foot getting caught in the turf. In all sports, a stabilising knee brace may offer some protection.

The anterior cruciate ligament is generally torn in a noncontact situation where excessive forces are placed on the knee and the tibia is twisted under the femur causing a complete rupture (tear) of the ACL. This commonly is seen with twisting, stopping, turning sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, skiing, and soccer. It can also happen in contact sports with a blow to the knee.

Symptoms with a damaged ACL will be pain, swelling and a feeling of instability. Often times the knee can buckle underneath you and “give way.” If twisting, stopping, turning sports are attempted with a torn ACL, these buckling and “giving way” episodes will recur – a “trick knee.

The damaged ACL cannot be sewn back together as it will not heal. A torn ACL will require a reconstructive procedure using transplantable tendons from your body (autografts) such as the hamstring, bone-patella-tendon-bone (BTB) or quadriceps tendons, to reconstruct this torn ligament. Allograft (tissue bank cadaver tissue) tissue is often used with less pain to you and earlier return to function. Both autograft and allograft tendons are acceptable to use for ACL reconstructions.

The ACL is a ligament in the middle of the knee that connects the tibia (shinbone) to the fibia (thighbone).

A key feature of a serious ACL injury is a feeling of instability (i.e. that the knee may collapse from underneath you).

Not always. Some people are able to function normally without surgery, so long as they have physiotherapy, but others need reconstructive surgery no matter how much physiotherapy they have. Whether or not you have your ACL reconstructed also depends on how active you are, and how your injury impacts on your daily and sporting activities.

Early surgical intervention to repair a torn ACL is not recommended in the vast majority of cases, and physiotherapy for at least four to six weeks is almost always recommended first in the amateur sportsperson. This approach has the advantage of allowing any other associated injuries to settle, and any inflammation to subside. Taking time to have physiotherapy also gives the patient and physiotherapist the opportunity to assess whether they feel there is a genuine need for reconstruction.

Compared with surgery for meniscal tears, ACL reconstruction is a much more involved procedure as it involves taking a tendon graft as indicated (usually the hamstring) from another part of the leg and using this to substitute the broken ligament. The time taken to recover from this type of surgery is much longer than for meniscal tears, and it may take up to nine months before you are able to undertake full sporting activities again.

DonJoy makes several functional braces to address instabilities in the knee joint from the custom Defiance to the Playmaker. Since many of these braces are sold by prescription only, we suggest patients seek advice from their medical provider to ensure they get the correct brace for their specific condition. Of course we are always available to answer your questions. For further information, check our product detail pages here or contact our Customer Service Department at 800-336-6569.

Most ACL reconstruction surgeries are done using a single-bundle reconstruction. A single-bundle ACL reconstruction uses a tendon graft to replace the torn ACL. Unfortunately, ACL tears cannot be repaired, or sewn together, and a graft must be used to reconstruct the ligament. When the ACL is reconstructed, the graft is placed in the position of the anteromedial bundle. Grafts are held in place by making a hole in the bone called a tunnel. One tunnel is made in the femur and one in the tibia.