Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear

What is an Anterior Cruicuate Ligament (ACL) Tear?

Your ACL is a ligament in the middle of your knee that provides stability and prevents buckling of the knee. There are three grades of tears with a grade three or complete tear often requiring surgical intervention. If you have a full tear an Orthopaedic surgeon will usually repair it using a graft from either the patella tendon, hamstring tendon or a synthetic ligament (LARS). Rehabilitation is vital to restore tangle of motion, strength and coodination. Poorly rehabilitated ACL reconstructions have a higher re-rupture rate.

How Does an ACL Tear Happen?

The mechanism of an ACL tear usually occurs while playing sport with a pivoting action on a grounded foot. Often a popping or cracking sound occurs at the time of injury. ACL injuries commonly occur alongside other injuries due to the location of the ligament and mechanism of injury, particularly a MCL tear and/or medial meniscal tears.

What Get Active can do to Treat an ACL Tear?

Oedema management: Advice on swelling management and how to prevent further damage to the ACL and surrounding tissue
Soft tissue massage to release spasm in muscles restricting knee range of movement
Specific exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee, to increase stability, increase proprioception (the sense of your joints position in space) and balance. Then we will progress you to sport specific exercises to get you back into your training
Gait Scan and Orthotic prescription to align your foot and lower limb
Treadmill running analysis and gait analysis will also be beneficial