Weekend Warrior- ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament)

For this segement of Weekend Warrior I'm going to spend time on the most common knee ligament injury in athletes, the tearing of the ACL.  I'm sure you've heard all about the ACL injury from Tom Brady last year and Wes Welker most recently, like a care for those bums, LETS GO JETS!  For a little background about the ACL it is one of four ligaments that holds the knee together.  It is given the name "Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL)" because the ligament is anatomically in front of the other three major ligaments that constitute the human knee.

Now, lets get into the fun stuff, how the ACL usually tears, what patients say the feel when it happens, and the rehabilitation of the injury.

There are three basic factors that can contribute to the tearing of the ACL; environmental, hormonal, and anatomical.  First environmental.  Sports that include running and jumping pose the highest threat of tearing this oh so significant ligament.  Although certain contact sports, like football of course, can cause the most severe ACL injuries because of the high risk of hyperextension of the knee which can cause the ligament, and others, to go "bye-bye".  Hormonal, I'm sure most of you are very confused with this one, but it is known that high levels of estrogen can cause ligaments to weaken.  With that being said, this is one of the reasons why females (and certain saucebags) are more prone to tearing their ACL.  Finally, the anatomical reason why the ACL can tear, this is specifically for females.  I hope we all know that women have wider hips for child-bearing (now lets get back from our trip back to 6th grade sex education class) and because of the wider hips the "Q" (quadricep) angle is higher putting more pressure on the knee and its ligaments.  Sorry girls, you can't do anything about the hormonal or anatomical factors in tearing an ACL, but there are great ACL prevention exercises that can be done, I'm sure all you have to do is ask an athletic trainer or do the whole internet search engine thing.

Now usually if an athlete tears his or her ACL there will be surgery and it will suck.  Sometimes if the tear is super minute then surgery could be bounced, but lets just pretend we're electing on surgery to repair the ACL.  So what usually happens is a part of the patella tendon is taken and placed where the ACL used to be.  The tendon will heal, eventually the body and rehabilitation will help convert it into a ligament, and the ACL (formeraly patella tendon) will become even stronger.  Obvisouly after surgery some type of rehabilitation is needed, which involves alot of whole leg exercises focusing on regaining full range of motion, strength, total flexibility, and obviously living in a pain free environment.

For most of the athletes I've talked to tearing the ACL can feel like next to nothing or excruciating pain.  Either way swelling will occur in the affected area like any other serious injury.  Furthermore, if an athletic trainer or orthopedic surgeon has reason to believe you have torn your ACL they will perform the "Lachman" test, which tests the ACL for tears, it will basically be the sports medicine profession pulling on the lower half of your leg while your knee is pointed to the ceiling.

Typical ACL rehabilition will take approximately 6-9 months to completely recovered but the athlete may be cleared to play as soon as 6 months post-op.  Most of the time a brace is worn in athletic events, whether it's practice...yes we're talking about practice, we ain't talkin' 'bout a game, we talkin 'bout practice, (Sorry A.I.) or a game just as a precaution and it also helps give the knee some more stabilization and support.

As I've previously stated there are plenty of very impressive ACL prevention exercises that any athlete of any age can perform.  I highly recommend that all females do this just because girls are about 60% more likely to tear an ACL, which is unfortunate but true. Now don't go out in your game playing scared of tearing an ACL, don't hold anything back and best of healthy luck to all athletes.