It would be good to educate people about it. The consequences and an alternative Repair and rehabilitation of a torn ACL can be a timely and costly matter. It may require months of intense physical therapy, reconstructive surgery or both. Luke's Medical Center. Bach, who has performed almost 1,000 ACL reconstructive surgeries, said diagnosis and treatment of ACL injuries has improved in recent years with doctors using MRIs to confirm ligament tears and replacing torn ACLs with grafts from the patellar tendon, the hamstring tendon and even cadaver grafts.
Recovery time can range from six months to a year.
While researchers are still trying to figure out exactly what causes the gender disparity in knee injuries, doctors at the Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center have developed a jump-training and conditioning program called Sportsmetrics, which is being used in hundreds of high schools and colleges. Research has shown that girls rely more on their quadriceps than their hamstring muscles to jump. This, according to experts, reduces stability in the knee and could contribute to the higher ACL injury rate. By strengthening the hamstrings and quadriceps, landing in a crouched position after jumping and learning to fire the hamstring muscles, female athletes can reduce their knee injuries to a rate comparable to males, Cincinnati researchers say. More articles on the Print Edition home page Advertisers Choose Menus Location Franch.