The health care practitioner will have you lay on your back with your knee bent to 90 degrees and foot resting on the table. Your foot is stabilized by another person, or by the practitioner sitting on it, then slow pressure is placed on the proximal tibia. Any looseness in the joint could indicate ACL injury. The health care practitioner will have you lay on your back. The foot on the symptomatic side is lifted with the leg straight and the foot turned inward.
Pressure is applied to the outside of the knee while the knee joint is slowly bent.
ACL injury is noted if the tibia moves out of joint at 30-40 degrees of knee flexion. Physical therapy may be recommended to help regain joint and leg strength. When tissue is damaged, the body begins a healing process almost immediately by moving various cells and elements to the area necessary to rebuild, or replace the injured tissue. This means that the ACL injury could take from weeks, months, or years to completely heal. Call your health care provider if symptoms of ACL injury occur.