Knee Injuries Brown University (n.d.) stated that people who participate in sports have a significant chance of developing a serious knee injury compared to any other injury. Over the past decade, knee injuries have risen almost 200% with the most common ones being: sprains, tears, and dislocations. These various injuries can include notorious tears known as:
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears
• Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) tears
• Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) tears
• Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) tears
Each type of tear can be clearly visible through the use of an MRI scan.
ACL Tears ACL tears are the most common type of knee injuries seen in athletes. The ACL is viewed as the most important ligament in the entire knee. To elaborate, it helps provide stability throughout the entire leg. Although the majority of these injuries result from contact sports, such as football, some result from non contact sports, such as tennis, as well. This injury can result from overstretching the anterior ligament or completely tearing it (Brown University, n.d.). According to Brown University (n.d.) in a study by the National Football League, 100% of football players suffering from ACL injuries, through a five year span, required some sort of surgery. In contrary, an ACL injury recovery time can be more accurately determined in comparison to concussions. In most instances an athlete’s recovery time can vary from six to nine months. Though knee injuries have more
An injury to the ACL is classified as a sprain. A sprain is a joint injury that causes a stretch or a tear in a ligament. Sprains are graded I, II, or III depending on how severe the injury is. A grade I sprain will have pain with minimal damage to the ligaments. A grade II sprain is going to have more ligament damage and mild looseness of the joint. Finally, in a grade III sprain, the ligament is completely torn and the joint is very loose or unstable. A grade III sprain, simply called an ACL tear, is most often a sports-related injury. Still, The ACL can be torn in other instances such as during rough play, vehicular collisions, falls, and work –related injuries. According to a study performed by Jonathan Cluett, M.D., about 80% of sports-related ACL tears are “non-contact” injuries. This means that the injury does not result from any contact with another athlete. A rupture to the ACL is the result of the ligament within the knee being overstretched. This is usually caused by a “plant-pivot” mechanism (a stop and twist motion) of the knee, or a blunt force to the front of the knee. Other factors include quick changes of motion, twisting or torquing, or landing from a jump. Hyperextension is most
Recovering from a serious knee injury and returning to pre-injury levels can be a difficult task to overcome, but it has been proven possible to do this. Improper injury protocols and the injuries themselves are two of the largest factors in professional athletes not having elongated and successful careers. ACL, MCL, PCL, LCL, and Patellar Tendonitis are the most common knee injuries in which athletes sustain. Sustaining a knee injury at the highest and most competitive levels of basketball can make the injury and recovery process much more difficult and stressful, however. Depending on the injury, it can take a very extended amount of time for the knee to return back to its normal functioning, especially since damaging one part of the knee does not come without other injuries. A permanent and career ending injury may be the result if the proper percussions are not taken throughout the recovery process.
With an ever increasing number of people becoming involved with athletic activities, there is an increasing number of injuries occurring which can be devastating for the individual. Most of the injuries that affect athletes occur in one of four structures in the human body: bones, muscles, tendons, or ligaments. Because ligaments attach bone to bone and play a major part in providing stability for joints, the major stabilizing ligament in the knee, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), assists in performing everyday actions of the human body including sitting, standing, walking, running, dancing, and participating in other sports. The injury that specifically affects this ligament is very serious and always
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important structure in maintaining the normal biomechanics of the knee and is the most commonly injured knee ligament. ACL tears may be partial or complete. A partial tear can involve both or only a single bundle to varying degree, can range from a minor tear involving just a few fibers to a high grade near-complete tear involving almost all of the ACL fibers.
A torn ACL is a injury in which also is a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the knee. When someone tears their ACL they have to have a surgery to replace it. ACL injuries range from mild, such as a small tear, to severe such as when the ligament tears completely or when the ligament and part of the bone separate from the rest of the bone. A lot of the time some of the other knee ligaments or parts of the knee are also injured. This includes cartilage such as the menisci, or bones in the knee joint they also can be broken. Your ACL can be broken during sport activities. During an activity if your leg is planted firmly on the ground then hit by a heavy/large force it could tear the ACL. Some ways your ACL can be tore is by being bent backwards,
An ACL is the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) which is a ligament in the knee and is an essential internal stabilizer of the knee joint and helps in restraining hyperextension. It is injured when it’s when the biomechanics of this ligaments limits are exceeded or over stretched, often with a hyperextended mechanic. It was thought that
Another reason for ACL wounds is halting all of a sudden the sudden alter in course puts weight on the knee and the ACL takes the majority of this anxiety since it's the weakest part of the knee. Backing off while running additionally puts weight on the ACL in light of the fact that it's like halting abruptly. Arriving from a bounce erroneously is another illustration of an ACL damage, any sort of hopping puts weight on the ACL in light of the fact that it's the weakest part of the knee. Direct contact or crash, for example, a football handle any sort of impact specifically to the ACL could bring about a tear or serious sprain. (American Institute of Orthopedic
INCREASE IN TEARS Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are receiving a great deal of notice because of the incidence of injury that occurs not only in the athletic population but also in those individuals who are recreationally active (Russell, 2006). Each year in the United States there are approximately 250,000 ACL injuries. This is approximately 1 in 3,000 in the general population (Boden, 2000). Of these injuries, about 175,000 require reconstructive surgery. These surgeries had an estimated cost of over two billion dollars annually in the United States (Yu, 2007). These statistics alone make it obvious that this injury occurs very often. The ACL is one of the most commonly disrupted ligaments in the knee. While the prevalence of the injury has increased, so has the number of athletes in the world since ACL injury research first began. Women are now allowed to participate in sports and new sports are being participated in
The knee is a complex joint. There are many different injuries that can occur during sports. The most predominant type of injuries to the knee is those done to the Meniscus and the ligaments. There are two areas of ligaments that are commonly affected; the cruciate ligaments and the Collateral ligaments. Within the Cruciate ligaments there are posterior and anterior injuries, and within the Collateral ligaments there are medial and lateral injuries. It is very important that these injuries be taken seriously in athletics due to the seriousness of their affects to the knee.
In her article, “High School ACL Injury Rates”, Dawn Comstock shows that in 2009, about sixty percent, of all sports surgeries involve the knee; within the sixty percent, about fifty percent of the knee surgeries are ACL reconstructions. Sports that could have a higher tendency for an athlete to tear the ACL are sports that require an athlete to decelerate quickly or need to cut and change direction instantly. For example, an article shows that a high-impact sport has a higher percentage of ACL tears when compared to a low-impact sport, such as football and women’s soccer; football has a forty-one percent ACL injury rate while women’s soccer only has nineteen percent. Not only does the level of impact effect the likelihood of ACL injury, but the gender of the athlete as well. When looking at women’s and men’s soccer, men have a merely thirteen percent ACL injury rate because their physical structure along with their techniques when doing certain exercises.
In sport an ACL injury is the most frequently ruptured ligament of the knee (Johnson, 1983), it is described by Flynn 2005 as a serious, common and costly injury (Flynn, 2005). In many cases an ACL injury is the result of noncontact and studies done by Barrett et al 1972 and Beckett et al 1992 support this as they reported that 78% and 71% of ACL injured patients described noncontact mechanisms of injury such as landing with too much knee extension or change in direction (pivoting) (Barrett et al 1972 and Beckett et al 1992) and also can happen due to contact such dominant kicking leg, fall on the knee or even a forceful blow to the knee. Bjordal et al 1997, in their findings showed that 58% and 42% of ACL injuries were
The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is one of the most common knee injuries in female sports today. The ACL is a ligament that attaches the femur and tibia to the knee allowing the knee to bend while still being stable and supporting the whole body. Dr. Russel F. Warren, a physician for the New York Giants football team, explains, “The ACL prevents the shin bone (tibia) from moving too far forward on the thigh bone (femur) and keeps the knee from twisting inward excessively.” When athletes tear their ACL there is a greater chance that they have hurt or another ligament in their knee such as the LCL, MCL or Meniscus; which is cartilage that absorbs shock from the body’s pressure (MedlinePlus). The ACL is strong, but one wrong move could result
When an ACL tears it can be one of the most painful injuries and experiences an athlete can have in their sports career and is one of the worst muscles to be torn. ACL injuries most often occur during sporting events that involve sudden stops, jumping, awkward landings, “out of control play”, and sharp cuts- such as basketball, soccer, football, tennis, downhill skiing, volleyball, lacrosse, and gymnastics. When an injury to the ACL occurs, most people hear or feel a popping sensation in the knee.”I landed with my left knee locked, only to hear something akin to the popping of a paper bag filled with air or the snapping of a large rubber band, a sound so weirdly powerful that I couldn’t believe it was coming from inside my body”, said Mike Swift in his article about ACL tears in the Hartford Courant newspaper, as he describes how it felt when he tore his ACL playing basketball. Along with the popping sensation the knee may also swell, and feel unstable and become too painful to bear weight on it. When an ACL tears it can bring an extreme amount of pain to the person. “Still, even after the swelling subsided, my knee didn’t feel right”, also said by Mike Swift in his article. When an ACL tears it can either be really painful right then and there or you won’t even feel pain at all. “I had felt the bones separate inside the joint in a way they never had before. But I wasn’t
ACL injuries used to be seen as career ending injuries 50 years ago, however, throughout the years with the advancement in technology aiding treatment and rehabilitation procedures. Yet they are still sever and take months to recover. This is because of the precise location of the ligament within the knee joint. Resulting in no blood clot formation within the joint as a consequence scar tissue will not form and the tissue will just be filled with uncontrolled blood leading to swelling an pain within the joint (ACL reconstruction Oxford university hospital, 2017) which is why it takes between 9 to 12 months for recovery. With an ACL injury, other injuries often follow, namely MCL injuries and meniscal lesions which in time would likely lead to the patient contracting osteoarthritis due to it being a degenerative disorder consequently resulting from the meniscal and
The ACL is the most common knee ligament to get injured. The ACL injury causes from taking a hard hit on