ORTHOPEDICS/HIP & KNEE/KNEE LIGAMENT DAMAGES
About Lateral Collateral Ligament Tear (LCL Tears)
The lateral collateral ligament, or LCL, is one of the four principal ligaments that supports the knee joint and is positioned on the outer side of the knee.
LCL tears may happen due to a snaking damage type or to a direct blow to the inner knee side.
Also LCL tears seldom happen as an isolated damage, and are much more commonly discovered related with other damage inside the knee joint.
Knee unsteadiness or fastening sensations are exploited when an LCL tear happens, specifically with side-to-side cutting or pivoting motion.
LCL Tears Therapy
Usually, therapy of knee ligament damages are complicated.
Different factors may influence a therapy decision. This depends on the damage type, its severity, its mechanism, as well as the prospects for future activities.
LCL Tears/Nonsurgical Therapy
As said previously, LCL tears are graded according to the damage severity.
When there is not an entire fibers disturbance in the ligament, grade 1 and grade 2 LCL tears damages are involved.
Generally, these damages does not necessitate surgical therapy.
LCL Tears Surgical/Therapy
Surgical therapy is mostly performed when the lateral collateral ligament is entirely torn.
Surgical therapy can either be performed to restore the damage to the ligament or to rebuilt the lateral collateral ligament by creating a new ligament by using tissue implant.
Also an implant (or graft) is used when the damage happens in the central portion of the lateral collateral ligament.
In such cases, different kinds of tissue implant can be used to rebuild the damaged lateral collateral ligament.
Graft Alternatives
Graft alternatives may include:
Procuring tissue from the patient’s body (autoimplant) or
Procuring tissue from a donor (allograft).
Note that there is various surgical procedures to performing a ligament reform.
Most often, the lateral collateral ligament is rebuilt by attaching the implant to the end of the thighbone (femur), lacing the implant through the top of the fibula (the smaller bone on the outside of the knee joint) then reattaching the end of the implant back up to the femur.
Surgery Risks
Knee ligament surgery is actually very frequent and risks related to these surgical therapies are very rare.
Risks if occurring may include some stiffness, or decreasing the joint steadiness, with little knee ongoing uneasiness.
Furthermore, a knee surgery of this kind is seldom developing future joint arthritis, as it may reflect inflammation and nerve injury.