Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction Surgery - Explained

Watch this animation video to learn about what happens during an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is a common sports injury. When it happens, you will often hear a ‘pop’, feel pain or that the knee has shifted out of place, and develop significant swelling in just a few hours. It’s usually sustained in sports which involves rapid change in direction, jumping and landing motions, e.g. soccer, basketball, etc.

Depending on the severity of your ACL injury, treatment may include rest and rehabilitation exercises, or ACL reconstructive surgery to replace the torn ligament.

It is a keyhole procedure involving the removal of the torn ACL and replacing it with a tendon taken from another part of the knee.

Steps in the ACL reconstructive surgery:

- Small incisions are made around the knee
- A camera is inserted into one incision to view the inside of the knee joint
- Surgeon performs the surgery by inserting instruments through another incision
- A graft is harvested from the knee
- Portions of the torn ACL is removed
- A tunnel for the graft is created by drilling into the thigh and shin bones
- The graft is pulled up through the knee joint into the tunnels of the shin and thigh bones
- The top end of the graft is fixed onto the thigh bone using a button and the other end is fixed onto the shin bone using a bioabsorbable screw

Over the next nine months, the graft will integrate into the tunnel.

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