ACL tears are common during sports activities which require sudden turning, cutting, jumping. Tear usually follows when your knee is suddenly twisted while your foot is still firmly fixed on the ground e.g, during a Kabaddi, football, basketball or baseball tackle. You will feel severe pain and a loud pop or a popping sound in your knee.

The patient feels a famous “pop” or slipping of knee after an injury while playing. Patients has a feeling of knee instability or giving away whenever his/her foot rests on an uneven surface. All patients have their own way of explaining their symptoms. Some say the knee is giving away, some slipping of knee joint and other say knee is loose and so on. Even you may fall on ground. But you may not feel this “pop” in spite of having torn ACL. Every episode is followed by pain and swelling in few hours which gradually settles after taking rest.

Being a sports person you should always remember the word “RICE”. It means rest, ice, compression bandage and elevation of limb to reduce pain and swelling. Now consult your doctor for further advice.

Your doctor will ask for the history of your injury. Then he will perform various tests on your knee to see for ACL injury and other associated injuries. He may ask for X- Rays of your knee joint so see for any injury to your bone. Finally he may ask you to get MRI done for your knee to confirm the ACL tear.

For acute injury you need to follow the “RICE” as explain in answer no 4. Your knee may have to put in a long brace for few weeks and few exercises are advised. Partial tears can be managed without surgery. With the help of a physiotherapy rehab program you should be able to regain strength and mobility after several weeks. Complete tears usually require surgery if you experience frequent episodes of knee giving away or want to resume pre injury level of sports activities.

After the initial symptoms are over you should be able to live a normal life. But if you are experiencing frequent episodes of knee giving away then you need to think seriously about this. If you are not willing to modify your life style or you think you are not leading a life you wish or if to want to regain sports activities as earlier then the surgery is the best option for you. As a sports person you will not be able perform up to your optimal level with ACL tear. It can kill your sports career.

Arthoscopic ACL reconstruction is the mainstay of treatment. A fiber optic camera and other instruments are passed through small incisions around your knee and the surgery is completed. The tissues for new ACL is taken from your same or other knee and is fixed in place of the torn ACL. Commonly done procedures are Semitendinosus and Gracilis (STG) graft or Bone patellar tendon (BPT) bone graft. The type of graft used depends on Surgeons preference.

A properly designed Orthoexcellence rehab protocol will be followed after surgery till your are able to resume your preinjury level of activities. And the exercises will start on the same day of surgery. Gradually the strengthening exercises and sports related activities are added till you gain the desired strength to resume your normal activities.

The answer is yes. the aim of your surgery is to make the knee stable regain pre-injury strength so that you can return to sports.

Long term knee instability results in repeated episodes of giving way which causes cartilage injury which ultimately can lead to joint arthritis. If you opt not to have surgery then you should limit the episode of giving way by restricting your activities, strengthening your leg muscles and bearing a brace if necessary.

Sports injuries are preventable. At Orthoexcellence, physiotherapy and rehab experts help the injured player to regain power and strength after injuries to resume the sport. Following measures should be taken by all the sports persons to avoid sports injuries:-

• A specific exercise training programme should be strictly followed to gradually gain maximum muscle strength needed for particular game.
• An adequate stretching and warm up protocol should be followed before going to the gameplay and similarly a cool down time should also be given to the body.
• An exercise programme should be such that you gradually gain strength and never do a quick and overdose of exercise to prevent fatigue.
• In addition to the game specific exercise protocol, general body build, core body exercises, should also the part of exercise programme.
• Always wear protective gears specific for each game to protect the vulnerable parts of body like, padded gloves, helmets, elbow, wrist and knee guards, thigh , shin , scrotal and chest guards etc.
• Every player should eat a healthy diet for the muscles and bone growth and never go to the ground after taking a full meal.
• An adequate rest should be given to the injured part to recover and a post injury rehab programme should be followed till you gain the pre-injury level of muscle strength before returning to the field.
• Take adequate rest before and after playing each game so that body is fully ready to play again with same strength
• Strictly follow the rules laid down for specific game.
• Yoga and meditation should be part of every sports training programme which helps to relax body, reduce mental stress of game, help focus on performance and helps build confidence.