Cruciate - surgery intro

• CRUCIATE LIGAMENT SECTION
• intro
• anatomy
• issues
• key points
• how ACL is injured
• how PCL is injured
• ACL diagnosis
• PCL diagnosis
• multi-ligament instability
• braces - types
• braces - issues
• surgery intro
• ACL surgery
• PCL surgery
• rehab
• complications

Totally torn cruciate ligaments do not successfully repair themselves.

Partially torn cruciates may repair themselves successfully, but a great many surgeons would choose even to 'augment' a partial tear with a graft so that the patient does not go on to a total tear and secondary damage to other structures.

Early surgical procedures (eg. MacIntosh) relied on strengthening the supports on the outside of the joint (extra-articular repair). A surgical breakthrough was made in the late 1970s with the introduction of synthetic ligament replacements, which led to the development of surgical techniques and instrumentation for internal reconstruction (intra-articular reconstruction).