Knee Ligament Injury

I am Dr. Ankit Bhartia. I am an orthopedician and i am specialized in orthoscopy and orthoplasty of the knee hip and shoulder. I practice at Sparsh orthopedics and sports injury center on the Sohna Road Gurgaon. Today I will be talking about the ligament injuries.

Ligaments are tough band of tissues which connects to bone. In the knee joint there are four ligaments which stabilize the knee. These are the cruciate ligament and the posterior cruciate ligament which are inside the joint and middle collateral ligament and lateral collateral ligament which are outside the joint. These ligaments can stress or can get torn or in this case or whenever there is injury to the knee. The injury can occur in lot of circumstances. These are landing or jumping in a flexion knee, stopping suddenly during running, twisting the knee over on of slanted foot and direct blow to the knee can cause injury to any of four ligaments of the knee. These injuries are more common in sports persons. Those playing basketball, football, gymnast are all prone to fast injuries. During injury, patient may feel sudden pop or snap sound during the injury and immediately after that patient may feel pain which may be severe to mild and varieties of swelling which can again severe to mild. Patient will not be able to completely select reasoning or extend the knee. He will always have a walkway and it will always be painful and patient will have the feeling of looseness of the joint in the sense that he will be instable during walking or enduring pain climbing stairs from walking on uneven surfaces. Ligament injuries once happens in a patient we will have to consult an orthopedician. The orthopedician will examine the knee thoroughly and guide him for about the diagnosis and treatment.

Partial knee ligament injuries can be treated by conservative ways and the treatment which you will be advised for are rest to the knee joint, ice pack to the compression apparel dressings in the form of the kneecap or say bandage elevation of the knee joint and external bracing or knee support in the form of knee brace to support the knee joint till the ligaments are healed and medications which will be prescribed.

Our analysis and anti-inflammatory medications to reduce the swelling will be prescribed to you and physiotherapy to strengthen knee joint are very important to help in healing of the ligaments and recover to the full extent. Once the knee is completely torn, the completely torn ligament like ACL and PCL does not leave by itself nor it cannot connect be repaired. It can only be reconstructed nowadays.

In the past what has happened is lot of athletes had to leave this post because of this ligament injuries and no successful treatment is available but now a specifically these ligaments can be reconstructed and very small instruction are given and it is all done as quickly where a ligament is taken from one part of the body and is implanted into the injured part and and recovery is possible and return to the activity is guided by physiotherapy. Doctor has some patients recover very fast, some take time to recover so it is a guided process. Within first week you will start and your increase in activity will depend upon your recovery process as such.

How to prevent ligaments of your knee to get injured?

• Very important is to warm up before all activity especially evasive activities, gym and the morning walks etc.
• Another thing is to strengthen your thigh muscles, strengthen your knee muscles is very important apart from strengthening, stretching of the muscles is also equally important.

How to prevent the injuries to the knee?

• Most important thing is to strengthen your knee muscles and to maintain the flexibility apart from extension you need to do stretching of your knee muscle as well.
• Second most important thing is to always warm up before starting any kind of exercise, running, gyming or sports.
• Apart from this you need to take care that you should not start to any of the activity of the knee and you should not even increase the limit of your activity abruptly.

Thank you. To contact me and to consult me, you can contact Lybrate or you can call up at Sarah Orthopedic and Sports Injury Center, Sohna road, Gurgaon.