With Knee Ligament Injury, the ACL is the most commonly injured single ligament in the knee and also by far and away the ligament which is most often reconstructed, other ligament such as the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), the medial collateral- (MCL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL) as well as the posterolateral corner of the knee may be damaged in the event of high velocity trauma.
These ligaments are usually injured in combination and management of these multidirectionally unstable knees is based on the findings at clinical examination as well as the MRI scan results. In summary, none of these ligaments are usually injured in isolation and surgical stabilisation procedures may be required. Ligament repair, often augmented with some form of ligament reconstruction may be necessary in these cases. As in many instances in orthopaedics, less is often more as far as surgery is concerned, based on the fact that these knees tend to stiffen up in the acute phase and residual instability may then be addressed with ligament reconstructions once the inevitable associated soft tissue injuries have settled down and the patient has been rehabilitated from the point of view of range of motion and muscle strength. Management of knee ligament injury constitutes high end trauma orthopaedics and is best carried out by a knee specialist.
Commonly associated intraarticular injuries are traumatic cartilage injuries and meniscal injuries.
