Thursday, May 31, 2012

For active Asheboro NC citizens, surgery is an option for an ACL tear


Residents in Asheboro NC may find comfort in the fact that an ACL tear does not necessarily need surgery. It is surely an option for a patient but it doesn’t mean it is the only way to fix our ACL.

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It stabilizes the knee and it also prevents excessive motion of the knee joint. However, it may be injured while executing pivoting and landing movements.

ACL tears usually occur in sports. This is naturally so since athletes subject their knees to huge amounts of pressure and stress while playing. They may hurt their ACL while running, jumping and pivoting. Other patients may not need a strong ACL but it is quite different for athletes. They often undergo ACL surgery so their motion fit for competition may be restored.

Professional doctors diagnose an ACL tear by letting patients get an MRI. It is the most common method to diagnose ACL injuries as well as other knee injuries.

ACL surgery

ACL injuries may not always require surgery. Often, patients feel better after applying the RICE method – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Mediation such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen are usually recommended as well. However, for quite severe cases, instability of the knee joint, as a result of an ACLtear, poses problems and later on may prompt the need for surgery.

ACL reconstruction is the usual procedure to fix a torn ACL. In this procedure, the torn ligament is replaced with another tendon or ligament. One variation of this procedure is called anatomic ACL reconstruction. 

Anatomic ACL reconstruction places the substitute tendon precisely in the same position of the original ligament. This procedure addresses the difficulty of replicating the original ligament function. With this procedure, patients experience faster recovery.


No comments:

Post a Comment