ACL Tear Greater Festus, MO. ACL tears can abruptly upend your active routine and daily life. One instant you’re flying down the court, engaging in your favorite sport or playing with your kids, and the next second you’re thinking about whether you’ll get to play or even go back to your job again. At Axes Physical Therapy in Festus, MO, we have committed our practice to helping our patients regain their strength and mobility, and getting them back to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work in concert with you as a team and design personalized, empirically-backed treatment plans. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in Festus, MO, contact us online or locate the most convenient Axes location for you. We focus on getting every patient great results and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means burning corners in your local Festus, MO flag football league, or picking up your grandchildren without any pain.

What is the ACL? | Festus, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of tough, flexible fibrous tissue that attach two bones. The ligaments in the knee help keep your knee stable by attaching your tibia (shinbone) to your femur (thigh bone). The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, runs down the center of your knee and forms an “X” with the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). The ACL and PCL work in concert to stabilize the front and back motion of your knee, and the ACL stops the tibia from sliding too far forward on the femur and supplies rotational stability.

ACL tears can be either partial or complete. Depending on the grade of your ACL tear, your capacity to bear weight and your movement will be affected. Regardless of how significant your injury, trust in the Festus, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you accomplish a complete recovery.

Causes of an ACL Tear | Festus, MO Physical Therapy

There are as many as 250,000 ACL injuries nationwide annually, and it is one of the most common knee injuries and sports injuries. Athletes who play contact sports and/or sports where there is a lot of cutting and changing direction are at high risk for ACL tears. According to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, 70% of ACL tears happen in non-contact injuries, such as changing direction rapidly, and the rest are caused by direct blows to the knee. External and internal factors could both be at play when you sustain an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your movement is interrupted immediately before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven ground or landing with improper form
• Being hit by something or someone
• Suddenly decelerating or changing direction
• Spinning with a firmly planted foot
• Receiving a direct hit to the knee

Internal Factors

These have to do with the structure and anatomy of the body. Examples include:

• The anatomical differences between men and women
• How flexible the hamstring and other surrounding muscles are
• Differences in genetics

While many ACL tears transpire in sports, they are also common in falls and work-related injuries. They can become more common as we age and our bodies weaken. Women are 4-6 times more likely to sustain an ACL tear, likely due to anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | Festus, MO Physical Therapy

When you suffer an ACL tear, the pain will likely be at the center of the knee. An ACL tear does not always cause significant pain except if other structural damage was done to the knee. Some signs that you may have suffered an ACL tear are:

• Feeling or hearing a pop in your knee
• Inability to continue activity
• Your knee becoming inflamed quickly
• Reduction of range of motion
• Not being able to put any weight on your knee

If you suspect you’ve suffered an ACL tear, it’s vital to reach out to a doctor or a licensed physical therapist in Festus, MO to verify your injury and come up with the treatment plan you need to recover. We offer no-cost, no-obligation injury screenings and know many trusted doctors in Festus, MO that we can connect you with. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist is an integral part of your recovery team, working closely with you and your doctors and medical providers to collaborate on your safe and efficient recovery.

ACL Tear Treatments | Festus, MO Physical Therapy

It is vital to get prompt, effective, personalized treatment for your ACL tear. If you don’t, it can cause problems such as obesity or osteoarthritis, which can greatly affect you for the remainder of your life.

Directly following your ACL tear, it’s best to use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to reduce pain and swelling. A doctor will then examine you, assess your mobility, and likely order an MRI or other tests to verify the ACL tear and gauge the extent of the injury.

Because blood does not flow to ligaments, a complete ACL tear cannot regenerate on its own. That is why the aid of a licensed professional physical therapist is necessary to get back to the activities you love. The only way to fully repair an ACL tear is through surgery. So, surgery is often the best option for younger people, athletes who need a fully healthy ACL in order to perform, patients whose ACL tears were accompanied by other serious damage to other parts of their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes pain or weakness when performing basic, everyday tasks. ACL surgery is usually done by taking a graft from another tendon — either one of yours or a deceased donor’s — and then using small incisions to attach the graft to the femur and tibia.

Once the new ligament is in place, your journey back to normalcy and the activities you love is still a long way from over. After surgery, you may need crutches to move around, as your quadriceps muscles will have weakened. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in Festus, MO to optimize your recovery and the success of your surgery. Our ACL tear physical therapy professionals will work with you throughout your recovery process with proven, customized physical therapy. As part of your treatment plan, we will:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Educate you on your injury and the rehab process
• Gradually and successfully allow you to put weight on your knee again
• Provide you with a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Do movement exercises and balance exercises to increase mobility
• Perform strength exercises to increase strength
• Potentially employ electrical stimulation as a supplement to the exercises

When you work with the experienced Festus, MO area physical therapists of Axes and take an active role in your recovery, you have the best chance of a complete and timely recovery. Before you know it, we will get you back to tearing up the local pick-up league, or just enjoying being able to to climb stairs without feeling any instability in your knee.

How to Prevent an ACL Tear | Festus, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, many people sustain a second ACL tear and they can cause life-long consequences. Included in your treatment program in Festus, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will educate you on how to avoid another ACL tear down the line. We recommend some of the following steps to prevent further injury:

• Having a strong core
• Strengthen your hip and leg muscles
• Practice correct technique, for example landing evenly on both feet
• Stretch consistently
• Perform balance exercises
• Perform warm-up exercises before sports or other physical activities
• Always wear appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists committed themselves not only to getting you back to the activities you love, but doing what we can to make certain that you can carry on doing them without being disrupted by another injury.

Some of the other services we offer in Festus, MO are:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation

ACL Tear in Festus, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to be nervous about your your future after suffering a severe injury. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, you might be impatient to return to your active lifestyle and physical activities you value. Trust in the knowledgeable professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work in concert with you to implement a proven, personalized physical therapy plan to get you back to the basketball court, gymnasts’ mat, or just back to your normal, pain-free daily activities. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.