Causes

Ligaments are strong bands of tissue that connect one bone to another. The ACL, one of two ligaments that cross in the middle of the knee, connects your thighbone to your shinbone and helps stabilize your knee joint.

ACL injuries often happen during sports and fitness activities that can put stress on the knee:

• Suddenly slowing down and changing direction (cutting)
• Pivoting with your foot firmly planted
• Landing awkwardly from a jump
• Stopping suddenly
• Receiving a direct blow to the knee or having a collision, such as a football tackle

When the ligament is damaged, there is usually a partial or complete tear of the tissue. A mild injury may stretch the ligament but leave it intact.

Risk factors

There are a number of factors that increase your risk of an ACL injury, including:

• Being female — possibly due to differences in anatomy, muscle strength, and hormonal influences
• Participating in certain sports, such as soccer, football, basketball, gymnastics, and downhill skiing
• Poor conditioning
• Using faulty movement patterns, such as moving the knees inward during a squat
• Wearing footwear that doesn’t fit properly
• Using poorly maintained sports equipment, such as ski bindings that aren’t adjusted properly
• Playing on artificial turf

Prevention

Proper training and exercise can help reduce the risk of ACL injury. A sports medicine physician, physical therapist, athletic trainer, or another specialist in sports medicine can provide assessment, instruction, and feedback that can help you reduce risks.

Measures to reduce ACL injury include:

• Exercises to strengthen the core — including the hips, pelvis, and lower abdomen — with a goal of training athletes to avoid moving the knee inward during a squat
• Exercises that strengthen leg muscles, particularly hamstring exercises, to ensure an overall balance in leg muscle strength
• Training and exercise emphasizing proper technique and knee position when jumping and landing from jumps
• Training to improve technique when performing pivoting and cutting movements
• Training to strengthen muscles of the legs, hips, and core — as well as training to improve jumping and landing techniques and to prevent inward movement of the knee — may help to reduce the higher ACL injury risk in female athletes.

Treatment

1. First Aid is the immediate form of treatment. These first-aid tips will reduce swelling and pain. Use the RICE method. The letters stand for;

• R-Rest the knee
• I- put Ice on it
• C- Use an elastic bandage to give gentle Compression to the knee
• E- Elevate the leg by propping it up above the level of your heart. And at first, it’s also important to move your leg as little as possible.

2. Take over-the-counter pain medicine. Be safe with medicines. Read and follow all instructions on the label.

3. You may need to walk with crutches and use a knee immobilizer to keep your knee still for the first few days after the injury.

4. Your knee will need to be checked by your doctor. It’s important to get treatment. If you don’t, the injury may become a long-lasting problem. There are two ways to treat the injury:

5. Exercises and training, also called rehab. It takes several months of rehab for your knee to get better.
6. Surgery. You and your doctor can decide if rehab is enough or if surgery is right for you.
If you have surgery, you will also have several months of rehab afterward.

Your treatment will depend on how much of the ACL is torn, whether other parts of the knee are injured, how active you are, your age, your overall health, and how long ago the injury occurred.

There are three main treatment goals:

• Make the knee stable if it is unsteady, or at least make it stable enough to do your daily activities.
• Make your knee strong enough to do all the activities you used to do.
• Reduce the chance that your knee will be damaged more.