The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

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    ACL Injuries

    Tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is becoming more common in the world of sports.  The ACL is one of the four main ligaments in the knee, and is the primary stabilizer.  It’s the smallest of the four, but is the most important, as it controls rotational movement of the knee.  ACL injuries are becoming more common in sports, with 250,000 to 300,000 tears happening per year.  These injuries are happening almost exclusively to athletes, with nonathletes having a one thousand to one chance of tearing their ACL.

    In sports, ACL injuries are most likely to tear one of two ways.  The most common way to tear it is non contact by cutting.  As an athlete is running, they may attempt to change direction quickly, causing their knee to buckle and possibly tear.  The second most common way to tear it is by contact, such as being clipped from behind in sports like football or hockey.  The ACL can be torn in other ways as well, like in basketball.  If a player jumps up to get a rebound, they can potentially land incorrectly and tear it that way.

    “The first thing I thought about when I tore my ACL was my future in sports.  I thought a lot about how I will come back and if I could ever play football again being it was my last high school game and college was not yet set in stone,” said Jackson Wetherby, former student.

    Certain athletes are predisposed to a higher risk of suffering an ACL tear.  The ACL and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) are located in a narrow ‘tunnel’ at the end of your thigh bone.  If that tunnel is very narrow, then there is not enough room for the ACL to maneuver in cutting activity, therefore, those people are 26 times more likely to tear their ACL.

    “As a trainer, I’ve dealt with at least 10 ACL tears.  The worst one I’ve ever dealt with was when a kid dislocated his knee, which caused his medial collateral ligament (MCL) to partially tear and his ACL and PCL to completely tear,” said Coach Drew Phillips, sports medicine trainer.

    Diagnosing an ACL tear can happen in two different ways.  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most accurate, but is mostly used when it is unsure if the ACL is torn or not.  The other way to diagnose an ACL tear is by using the Lachman’s test.  It is about 90 percent accurate when performed by an expert.  Instead of the knee being bent 90 degrees, it is only slightly bent, while attempting to pull the tibia forward with one hand while holding the thigh just above the knee with the other hand.  If the ACL is intact, the tibia does not come forward, whereas if the ACL is torn, it will keep coming.

    For most people, surgery is required to repair the torn ligament.  The ACL is usually substituted with another structure, typically being a portion of the patellar tendon, which is located directly in front of the ACL.  This particular surgery should be performed by an experienced sports orthopedic because a millimeter difference during the surgery can have a huge impact.  The benchmark for return is a minimum of six months.

    “It actually made me a harder worker. I wanted to come back and do even better than before, so it really made me work hard,” said Wetherby.

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