The anterior cruciate ligament is the reason that the knee only has one pattern of movement. Instead of moving sideways and up and down, the knee only serves as a pivot for flexion (bending) and extension (straightening); it holds the tibia and femur in place (northstar). In the northstar web page it is stated that, "The an

A torn ACL can only truly be determined through a series of tests starting with a physical examination, as in the Lachman's and Anterior Drawer tests. In the Lachman's test (shown in Fig. 2.), "[the] Patient with suspected injury lies supine on examination table and flexes the knee at 15 degrees. The person examining the patient stands on the affected side of the extremity and holds the patient's femur (thigh) immobile with one hand. The other hand is placed on the tibia (shin) and tries to move it forward, without rotation. The movement of this knee is then compared to the normal knee" (northstar). The physical examination is also given using the Anterior Drawer test (Fig. 3.). In this test, the "Patient's knee is placed at 80-90 degrees flexion. The examiner repeats [the] process of Lachman's test except that he or someone helping him sits on the patient's feet to stabilize it and gently pulls the tibia forward with both hands" (northstar). Unfortunately, sometimes there is too much swelling in the knee to get accurate results from these tests. The athlete then has the fluid drained from his/her knee, and if this fluid has blood in it, the sechrest site notes that there is a 70% chance that the ACl has been torn. X-rays can then be done to rule out the possibility of fractures or chipping of the knee joint, which can also cause blood in the joint. If there is still doubt, an MRI can be done. MRI is an abbreviation for magnetic reconnaissance image. An MRI allows doctors to choose which layer of the anatomy they wish to see, and show a much clearer view of the area under inspection. In most cases an MRI will always be done if there is a suspected torn ACL. For even more evidence that there is actually a tear an arthroscopy is performed, but usually this procedure is left for surgical, not diagnostic purposes. An arthroscopy entails a small camera being placed in the knee joint to look directly at the ACL.

terior cruciate ligament is one of the most important ligaments to athletes because of its main function, stabilization of the joint while decelerating." In other words, it is the reason that we can stop abruptly without our leg collapsing. Obviously this asset makes it an essential to have a functioning ACL while playing sports. It is an especially common injury in soccer, which is a game of constant abrupt stops. Not only is soccer a danger to the ACL because of its constant stops and starts, it is also a game of jumps, falls, and sl

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Approximate Word count = 1657
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)