ACL Reconstruction

1331 Words3 Pages

Tom Brady is a professional football player who is currently the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. Brady was the 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player and he has twice been named Super Bowl MVP. But, in the first game of the 2008 NFL season, Brady was injured when he was thrown down by Kansas City Chiefs defender Bernard Pollard. Brady buckled to the ground in apparent pain and was carted off the field by the athletic trainers. Brady was then examined by the doctors and an MRI was taken of his knee. Tom Brady was diagnosed with a season-ending knee injury. Brady had sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear as well as a medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear. Brady then had a decision to make. Did he want surgery, or did he want to rehab his knee and have a slow recovery and have the possibility of being out for more than one season? The ACL does not heal itself when completely torn, and therefore, surgical reconstruction of the ligament is the usual treatment.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most important of your four major knee ligaments. The function of the ACL is to provide stability to the knee and minimize stress across the knee joint. It restrains excessive forward movement of the lower leg bone (the tibia) in relation to the thigh bone (the femur). It also limits rotational movements of the knee. “Greater external knee valgus and internal rotation moments have been shown to increase loading on the ACL in vitro and are thought to be associated with the increased risk of noncontact ACL injury” (Effects 2011). A tear to the anterior cruciate ligament results from overstretching of this ligament within the knee. It’s usually due to a sudden stop and twisting motion of the knee, or a “...

... middle of paper ...

...r you are elderly, surgery is optional. If you are an active athletic person like Tom Brady, surgery is required for you to get back into your normal active lifestyle.

Works Cited

Millett, Peter J. ACL Reconstruction Rehabilitation Protocol. Vail, CO: The Steadman Clinic.

McKeon, Brian P. "Patient Information Sheet: Anterior Cruciate Ligament." Boston Sports &

Shoulder Center (n.d.): 5.

Tsai, Liang-Ching, Susan M. Sigward, and Christine D. Pollard. "Effects of Fatigue and

Recovery on Knee Mechanics during Side-Step Cutting." Medicine and Science in Sports and

Exercise 41.10 (2009): 1952-7. OmniFile Full Text Select. Web. 5 Dec. 2011.

Vonderfecht, Sean. ACL Rehabilitation Kaitlin Kumke. 7 11 2011.

"What Is The Anterior Cruciate Ligament?." ehealthMD. 22 Nov. 2011.

.

More about ACL Reconstruction

Open Document