Accessibility Tools

Rehabilitation after an ACL

Rehabilitation after an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstruction

Rehabilitation after an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstruction

one of the most severe yet common injuries amongst athletes. This injury occurs during a forced rotation injury to the knee during sport activities. The anterior cruciate ligament that's responsible for the anterior stability of the knee is torn (often accompanied by a trauma or tear to the medial collateral ligament and medial meniscus, comprising of the phenomenon called “the unhappy triad”).

Swelling arises immediately and instability of the knee that tends to “give way” during movement. Later symptoms can vary from continued instability and pain in the frontal part of the knee around the patella. This injury usually requires surgery in which a graft from one of the tendons of the leg is used as the “new ligament” (the tendon varies from one physician to the other). This surgery requires a prolonged and intensive rehabilitation process between 6-8 months. Recently though, researches shown that 50% of the patients rehabilitated back to sport activity only with physiotherapy and conservative treatment. The rehabilitation comprises of many elements of manual therapy, core strengthening, stretches, stability exercises and a gradual return to sports according to the treatment objectives defined by both the patient and therapist together. After the rehabilitation, the athlete returns to his team and fitness trainer for the last stage of returning to sport.