Do you have an injured ACL (anterior cruciate ligament)?

Your ACL is one of a few crucial ligaments that provides stability to your knee joint.  The ACL helps to restrain excessive forward movement of the lower leg bone, (AKA your tibia) in relation to the thigh bone (the femur).  Excessive rotational movements at your knee are also controlled if your acl is intact.   

So what can you do if you injured your ACL? – After the shock is over, now what do you do?

Well, among the many options you have are to see your doctor, of course,…surgery may be an option, and then to get a knee brace along with having some sort of physical therapy to help work yourself back into shape.

Many people wonder : “Am I going to need surgery”?

This is a decision between you and your physician… But, If you are going to have surgery, the usual post surgical process would be to get a large knee immobilizing type of splint or knee brace for after surgery. These kinds of knee braces are very good at keeping your knee very still, and possibly allowing a specific range of movements later, when your physician says that you can start moving your knee. These specific movements at the knee are usually controlled by the knee joints on the post op knee brace.

Ok, I have used a post op brace, Now What?

Next it is highly likely, that you will get a “functional knee brace”.  What this means is that you will have a knee support that will promote stability while you are in life’s daily activities.  These braces are designed to allow normal movements of the tibio-femoral joint without overloading or causing abnormal displacement that may cause strain to the injured ligament or reconstructed Anterior Cruciate Ligament.  Ie. It will support your knee while you move in a normal range of motion.

In a study of people that have injured their ACL, it was found that the use of braces after the operative procedure provided considerable protection to the ligament from strain under anterior shear loads, when compared to no bracing.  

Bracing is also known to induce a sense of security and improve athletic performance.  The athletic performance is probably improved due to mental and physical stability that the brace can help provide.  Some researchers also associate a beneficial proprioceptive effect from the use of braces. However, the performance of a knee brace depends considerably on its design. – While studies are on to pinpoint the relationship of these factors to the functional efficacy of knee braces, they continue to be a top choice among athletes and other persons with high levels of physical activity for complementing treatment of knee instability due to injury to the anterior cruciate ligament.

If you would like more free information visit us online at http://www.drbraceco.com  We have helped thousands of people get the right brace, and we can help you too.  Visit us online today.