What Helps an ACL Heal Faster?

An ACL injury is a common knee injury that involves a partial or full tear of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the knee joint. It is a common injury amongst athletes such as basketball, soccer, and volleyball players. It can also occur in people with physical jobs depending on the physical demands of their work.

What is an ACL?

The ACL is a ligament that connects the tibia (shin bone) to the femur (thigh bone) and helps to keep the knee stable during pivoting or twisting movements. Interestingly, there are case studies of people who are not born with an ACL and do not experience any difficulties. This suggests that people may be able to rehabilitate from ACL injury completely without surgery. 

Why Do ACL Injuries Occur?

An ACL injury occurs when the knee is subjected to forces beyond what the ACL can handle. That can occur from a plant and twist injury, a fall, a sudden deceleration or trauma to the knee. Many cases of ACL injuries are non-contact and are interesting from a physiotherapy perspective since it would be important to identify the factors that contributed to the injury in order to prevent recurrence. ACL injuries can be partial or full tears of the ligament.

There are some factors that are not changeable. Those are the Q angle, PTS angle, ACL size, and intercondylar notch size. Although these are not factors that are modifiable, there are modifiable factors such as: the control of the hip and ankle muscles which affect knee position when landing from jumps, training errors, and muscle imbalances. A good physiotherapist will be able to assess these risk factors for you and create a customized plan to get you back to 100%.

What are my options for ACL injuries?

There are three options when it comes to rehabilitation of an ACL injury (partial or full tear).

1. Surgery (full tear) - this option is for people who play sports at a high level such as competitive athletes or want to return their body as close to their normal anatomy as possible. The surgery and recovery time is typically 9-12 months, including the physiotherapy afterwards.

2. Non-Surgical management (full or partial tear) - this is a growing and potentially preferable option for people who want to improve their quality of life as quickly as possible including returning back to high level sports/competition. The advantage is that there is a quicker recovery and in some cases a near complete recovery without the delays and risks associated with surgery.

3. Bracing (full or partial tear) - bracing has evolved as a strong tool for the treatment and prevention of recurrences. A quality custom made brace such as the ones that we make for patients at our clinic are a great option.

What Do I do if I think I have torn my ACL?

The best way to rehabilitate an ACL injury is to have an accurate assessment by a trained physiotherapist. At MUV Therapy, our experts are trained in orthopedic manual therapy and testing in order to determine the cause of your knee problem and what may have occurred. Through close collaboration with a medical team, we can diagnose and treat ACL injuries and help return people back to sport, work, and life. Delaying the start of treatment can lead to complications such as knee flexion contracture, muscle imbalances, and potentially chronic pain. Not to mention a large component of an effective rehabilitation plan for an ACL injury includes addressing fears and beliefs around injury. Many of our patients appreciate the holistic approach that we take when helping our athletes return to sport, including addressing psychological factors.

What Does Physiotherapy do for an ACL?

After an ACL injury, physiotherapy focuses on helping you recover your normal movement, muscle strength, and balance again. A good physiotherapy program will also include a comprehensive biomechanical assessment of your body that will help to highlight why the injury may have occurred in the first place. Although it can be a long process, it is well worth it to get the right treatment for your knee injury. After all, people who have ACL injuries can be more prone to the development of osteoarthritis later in life and we know that maintaining your knee flexibility and strength helps to delay the onset of degeneration and arthritis.

Not sure if you may have injured your ACL? Click on the buttons below to learn more. We offer free phone consultations to help you make a better decision about your options after ACL injury.