1. Loading mechanisms of the anterior cruciate ligament
- Author
-
Mélanie L. Beaulieu, James A. Ashton-Miller, and Edward M. Wojtys
- Subjects
musculoskeletal diseases ,Knee Joint ,Rotation ,Anterior cruciate ligament ,0206 medical engineering ,Shear force ,Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation ,02 engineering and technology ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Cadaver ,Humans ,Orthopedics and Sports Medicine ,Tibial rotation ,Anterior Cruciate Ligament ,Orthodontics ,Tibia ,business.industry ,Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries ,030229 sport sciences ,musculoskeletal system ,Compression (physics) ,medicine.disease ,020601 biomedical engineering ,ACL injury ,Biomechanical Phenomena ,surgical procedures, operative ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Reaction ,Ligament ,Large knee ,business ,human activities - Abstract
This review identifies the three-dimensional knee loads that have the highest risk of injuring the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the athlete. It is the combination of the muscular resistance to a large knee flexion moment, an external reaction force generating knee compression, an internal tibial torque, and a knee abduction moment during a single-leg athletic manoeuvre such as landing from a jump, abruptly changing direction, or rapidly decelerating that results in the greatest ACL loads. While there is consensus that an anterior tibial shear force is the primary ACL loading mechanism, controversy exists regarding the secondary order of importance of transverse-plane and frontal-plane loading in ACL injury scenarios. Large knee compression forces combined with a posteriorly and inferiorly sloped tibial plateau, especially the lateral plateau-an important ACL injury risk factor-causes anterior tibial translation and internal tibial rotation, which increases ACL loading. Furthermore, while the ACL can fail under a single supramaximal loading cycle, recent evidence shows that it can also fail following repeated submaximal loading cycles due to microdamage accumulating in the ligament with each cycle. This challenges the existing dogma that non-contact ACL injuries are predominantly due to a single manoeuvre that catastrophically overloads the ACL.
- Published
- 2024