What is an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Tear?
The ACL is a ligament in the middle of the knee that provides stability and prevents buckling of the knee. There are three grades of tears, with a grade three often requiring surgical intervention. If you have a full tear, the fix often involves a graft from either the patella tendon, hamstring tendon or a synthetic ligament by an orthopaedic surgeon. Rehabilitation is vital to restore motion, strength and coordination. Poorly rehabilitated ACL reconstructions have a greatly increased 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, such as in netball. One often hears a popping or cracking sound 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 or medial meniscal tears.
What Complete Care can do to treat an ACL Tear
We use our ‘return-to-sport’ rehab system to ensure that the healing process is most effective by allowing us to:
- Control inflammation and swelling
- Restore joint range
- Restore muscle length
- Improve muscle control
- Correct muscle imbalances
- Improve sporting technique
- Improve biomechanics
- Improve joint awareness (proprioception)
- Achieve advanced muscle strengthening
- Introduce cross-training activities to maintain your fitness
- Guide a progressive return to your chosen sport
