The ACL is one of the four significant ligaments in your knee joint. The ACL prevents the shinbone or tibia from slipping on the thigh bone or femur and helps maintain your knee’s rotation.

The ACL in your knee joint will be pretty vulnerable to an injury if you play sports like football, basketball, rugby, athletics, cricket, skiing, hockey, etc. That is due to the risk of your legs experiencing an impactful injury while planting, cutting and pivoting. In addition, women are approximately ten times more vulnerable to the ACL tear than men because of the hormonal influences, muscular strength and anatomical differences.

When an anterior cruciate ligament or ACL gets entirely or partially ruptured while performing an activity, the resultant injury is commonly called an ACL tear. Once your ACL is torn, it won’t be able to heal by itself.

If you or someone around you has recently suffered from an ACL injury, you might want to consider Dr Aditya Sai. While the ACL reconstruction surgery cost in Mumbai is soaring up day after day, you can expect the cost to be reasonable under Dr. Sai. Not only does he have immense experience in sports injuries, but he is recognised to be the best surgeon for ACL reconstruction.

Ligaments in your joints are strong tissue bands connected to each other and connect two bones to complete the joint. The ACL is one of those ligaments that cross between the femur and tibia bones in your knee. It helps in the stabilisation of your knee joint.

ACL injuries most often occur while playing football, hockey, cricket, rugby, basketball, skiing, athletics, etc. These sports tend to cause a lot of stress to your knees due to:

• Quickly pivoting from one direction to the other
• Sudden stops
• Suddenly slowing down or changing the direction (also called cutting)
• Getting involved in a collision or direct blow to your knee during tackles in rugby or football.
• Awkward landing after a high or long jump

A partial or complete tear in the ACL due to these sudden movements can result in injury. But if the injury is mild, it may not result in a complete tear but just a stretch.

Other than these causes, certain risk factors may be making you more vulnerable to ACL tear:

• If you are an athlete playing in sports like football, hockey, cricket, rugby, basketball, skiing, athletics, etc.
• Have not had training in your sporting discipline, due to which you have incorrect movement patterns like having your knees in the inward position while performing squats.
• If you are using poor quality or poorly maintained sporting equipment.
• Gender: Women are approximately ten times more vulnerable to the ACL tear than men because of the hormonal influences, muscular strength and anatomical differences.
• Poor conditioning

Although some of these risk factors, like gender, are unavoidable. But when you can check your sporting equipment and have proper training and conditioning while playing a sport. You might also want to be careful if the turf you are playing on is artificial.

ACL surgery usually takes one to two hours, depending on the specific procedure and any additional repairs needed.

Most individuals can return to sports or physical activities within six to twelve months after ACL surgery, depending on the injury's extent and rehabilitation's success.

Yes, physical therapy is essential to the recovery process after ACL surgery to help restore strength, flexibility, and function in the knee joint.