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What happens when the ACL is torn?
What happens when the ACL is
torn Most people who rupture their ACL can recall the exact moment at
which they felt it pop. This usually happens when changing direction quickly
in pivoting or cutting sports like soccer, landing from a jump in sports
such as basketball, or falling while skiing. The four "classic" symptoms
that people may feel when they tear their ACL are:
- They hear a "pop" from inside the knee
- They feel the knee give away at the time of injury
- They develop a swollen knee immediately, or within a few hours
- The pain is bad enough that they can not continue play that day.
When the ACL ligament is stretched
too far and ruptures, the blood vessels inside the ligament rupture as
well, and this blood fills the knee joint, causing the knee to swell.
While the ACL injury itself is usually not terribly painful, the swelling
that results from blood inside the knee prevents most people from returning
to the game or the athletic activity they were involved in at the time
of injury. Examining an athlete immediately after they have had a knee
injury can sometimes be difficult and it is often not possible to tell
what structures, if any, have been injured. This is because the quadriceps
and hamstring muscles "guard" the knee, preventing the examiner from testing
the ligaments accurately. A better examination can usually be obtained
after the swelling has gone down and the pain from the injury has subsided.
Although accurate diagnosis of the exact injury can be difficult, it is
relatively certain that an athlete who develops a swollen knee immediately
after an injury should not return to play and should seek medical evaluation.
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