What’s an ACL?
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a thick, fibrous band that runs diagonally through the knee and connects your shin bone (tibia) to your thigh bone (femur). The ACL provides rotational stability to your knee to protect it from injury.
How did I injure my ACL?
You can injure your ACL by playing sports or engaging in ordinary activities.
Slowing down after you’ve been running, changing direction, jumping, or suddenly stopping can exert an unexpected force on your ACL. You can also damage your ACL during a fall or through a collision while engaging in contact sports or other activities.
Injuries to the ACL are sprains and rated by severity:
- Grade 1 — mildly damaged and stretched ACL (knee still stable)
- Grade 2 — stretched and loosened ACL (partial tear)
- Grade 3 — tendon is torn through (knee unstable)
Grades 1 and 3 are the most common ACL injuries. A partial tear, grade 2, is rare.
What are the symptoms of an ACL injury?
When you injure your ACL, you may feel like your knee’s “gone out from under” you. You might even hear a popping sound as the tendon tears. Other symptoms include:
- Pain behind or in front of the knee
- Swelling within hours
- Reduced range of motion
- Difficulty and pain while walking
- Knee buckles or is unstable
When you injure your ACL, you’ve probably also injured surrounding tissues. Dr. Cohen takes the time to evaluate and diagnose all of the tissue or bone injuries your accident or incident caused.
How do orthopedists repair the ACL?
As soon as your injury occurs, adopt the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) protocol and contact Dr. Cohen. His recommendations for ACL repair vary depending on your age and the severity of the damage. If you don’t treat your ACL injury, you may develop other conditions, such as chronic ACL deficiency and osteoarthritis.
For a grade 1 sprain, Dr. Cohen may only recommend stabilizing your knee in a brace and using crutches to take the pressure off your leg.
If you’ve torn your ACL, it can’t heal by itself. Dr. Cohen surgically reconstructs your ACL with a tissue graft from another tendon. He performs the surgery using small incisions and an arthroscope to minimize trauma and reduce recovery time.
Whether you have minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery or not, part of your recovery program includes physical therapy to build strength and flexibility in your ACL and surrounding tissues.
As soon as you injure your knee, contact Dr. Cohen for an evaluation by calling Aventura Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine or booking an appointment online.
