A Giant Leap Forward in the Treatment of ACL Tears

For professional athletes and weekend warriors alike, knee pain is never good news. It’s often a sign that one of the main ligaments in the knee, particularly the MCL (medial collateral ligament) or ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), have suffered a tear.Aside from the pain and sudden inactivity, the worst part of ACL and MCL injuries is the often lengthy rehabilitation process. It can mean months of physiotherapy, pain medication and the use of knee braces or casts. In the majority of ACL tears, surgery is required to prevent re-injuring the knee.That last point is often confusing for ACL/MCL injury sufferers. While mild MCL injuries can heal in a week with rest, a proper knee brace and some therapy, torn ACLs usually require some form of surgical reconstruction and months of wearing braces and physiotherapy.

Why Are Injuries Worse to the ACL than to the MCL?

The differences in the severity of injuries to the ACL and MCL have to do with their location in the knee and how they heal naturally.

MCLs run along the outside of your knee joint to connect your femur (thigh bone) to your tibia (shinbone). MCLs are located on the inside of each knee.

ACLs connect the femur to the tibia in the centre of your knee.

As with any injury, your body immediately starts a healing process when you tear your ACL or MCL. The torn ends of the injured ligaments bleed. For MCL tears, the blood coagulates to form a base on which new tissue can grow to repair the tear.

For ACL injuries, blood from the injury cannot solidify because of the fluid inside the knee where the ligament is located. New tissue has no platform for re-growth and healing. Instead, doctors need to physically reattach the ligaments in a surgical operation. When tears are near where the ligament connects to a bone, holes are sometimes drilled into the bone to reattach the ligament. When tears happen in the middle of the ligament, grafts are used at the point of the tear.

New Hope for Torn ACL Sufferers

As reported in the Boston Globe, Dr. Martha Murray, who works in the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, has developed a process to help torn ACLs heal themselves. Dr. Murray and her team designed and created a sponge-like ‘scaffold’ that keeps the blood from the injury in place long enough for it to clot and begin a healing process similar to that of MCL tears.

Following successful trials on pig’s knees, which have a similar structure to human knees, Dr. Murray has recently received FDA approval to proceed with human trials of her process, which she expects to begin in January, 2015.

Whether you are an athlete or not, if you experience sudden knee pain during an activity, or after a slip or fall, you may have torn your MCL or ACL. If you’re not sure, or if your doctor prescribes physiotherapy, massage therapy or a custom knee brace, please visit your local HealthMax Physiotherapy Clinic, Contact Us or call 416-431-4000 for a no-charge initial consultation.