By; Dr. Slauterbeck December 2nd, 2022
Patient Background
Our patient has been through the injury, the Emergency Room, Surgery, and Physical Therapy. Mrs. Boone has sent him back to the doctor to get the patient evaluated for an ACL tear. Dr. Slauterbeck began with a recap of what we talked about the past few days. Connor had something called an effusion in his knee joint. An effusion is basically a form of swelling in any joint. Blood fills up the joint cavity due to many different reasons. When A doctor first sees a knee effusion it can be caused by three main factors, The most prominent one is a torn ACL, the next would be a broken bone or fractured knee cap, and the last possible incident would be a patella dislocation.
ACL Tear, Signs, and Symptoms
An ACL tear is defined as too much force being applied to the ACL and forcing it to tear or rip. An ACL can withstand around 2,000 Newtons of force, anything over that will cause damage. A tear can be a result of declaration from a jump, deceleration from forward running with knee near extension, combined knee motions, and quad dominance.
Who Tears ACL's?
ACL tears are most common in young athletes. Although more men have injured their ACL's, it is more common for women. More men have torn ACL's due to sports like football, where it is a predominantly male sport. However, in other sports such as soccer and basketball, it is more
common for women. There are many different theories
for why females are more likely to tear an ACL, some listed
to the right.
Treatment/Surgery
Now, Dr. Slauterback would go in and replace the ACL tendon with the patella tendon or the hamstrings. This photo shows how surgeons replace the tendon.
Olympic Committee
Dr. Slauterbeck has devoted his life to trying to deconstruct the mystery of an ACL tear and why it causes arthritis in younger people. He went and spoke to an Olympic Committee about how to prevent ACL tears. They were attempting to figure out who was more at risk of tearing their ACL. He stated that he believed that risk can be increased by five times if the patient's parents had experienced an ACL tear. This can be due to the AT-RISK GENE and passing on loose joints and ligaments to the children. Also, parents who were athletes as children are more likely to put their own children in sports and keep them in year-long sports. Constantly playing the same sport over long periods of time can be extremely damaging to a person's ligaments and tendons. An athlete should allow themselves at least one month of rest from every sport to allow their body to heal.
Bingo Analogy
Dr. Slauterbeck used the analogy of a bingo cage, The probability of someone tearing their ACL is one in every one thousand exposures. An exposure can be either an intense scrimmage or a game. One ball in the bingo cage can be considered one exposure. Every time an athlete plays in a game or scrimmage, they take out one ball. However, taking a break from the sport and working out your quads and hamstrings will allow you to put more "balls" into the bingo cage.
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