Anterior Cruciate Ligament

The knee is made up of many ligaments and tendons and Four bones. The superior portion of the knee is the distal head of the femur. The patella sits on top of the joint where the inferior portion of the knee is the proximal head of the tibia and fibula just below. Tendons connect muscle to bone, where as ligaments connect bone to bone. The main ligaments in the bone are the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) which runs from the patella to the tibia, The Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) which runs from the inside of the knee joint to the posterior head of the proximal tibia, the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) which runs on the medial side of the distal femur to the proximal head of the tibia and the Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) which runs on the lateral side of the distal head of the femur to the proximal head of the fibula. The knee also has a meniscus which acts as a sliding buffer for the bones. The knee is a synovial (diarthrosis) joint. Its subcategory is a hinge joint. You can
It can even be a career ending injury in professional and collegiate sports. The main function of the knee besides holding everything in place is to make sure that the knee doesn’t hyperextend medially. It also aids in the stabilization of the knee and allowing it to rotate. If you plant your foot and stabilize your other joints you will notice you can still rotate on the axis of your knee slightly. The main reason it is only slightly is because of the MCL and LCL. Injury can come in many forms to the MCL. Deceleration and then acceleration in another direction especially laterally is a large culprit to MCL strains, sprains and tears. The other most common way to injure the MCL is when an outside force is applied to the opposing side causing the movement that the MCL is there to stop. An example would be a football player catching a helmet to the lateral side of the knee causing it to hyperextend medially. (see figure