ACL Tear Greater St. Genevieve, MO. ACL tears have an enormous effect on your active routine and daily life. One moment you’re sprinting down the field, taking part in your favorite sport or having fun with your children, and the next moment you’re wondering if you’ll get to play or even go back to your job again. At Axes Physical Therapy in St. Genevieve, MO, we have dedicated 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 tandem with you as a team and design personalized, empirically-backed treatment plans. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in St. Genevieve, MO, contact us online or find the most convenient Axes location for you. Our priority is getting every patient a positive outcome and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means running the bases in your local St. Genevieve, MO league, or carrying your children on your shoulders without any pain.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament | St. Genevieve, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of durable, pliable fibrous tissue that connect two bones. The ligaments in the knee work to keep your knee stable by affixing 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 tandem to control the forward and backward movement of your knee, and the ACL safeguards 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 severe your injury, trust in the St. Genevieve, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you achieve a complete recovery.

Causes of an ACL Tear | St. Genevieve, MO Physical Therapy

There are as many as 250,000 ACL injuries in the United States 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 the most likely to get ACL tears. According to data from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the vast majority of ACL tears occur in non-contact injuries, such as changing direction rapidly, and the rest are because of direct blows to the knee. External and internal factors could both be at play when you suffer an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your motion is interrupted just before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven ground or landing awkwardly
• Something or someone knocking into you
• A sudden reduction in speed or switching direction
• Swiveling with a firmly planted foot
• Suffering a direct blow to the knee

Internal Factors

These concern the structure and anatomy of the body. Some examples are:

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

ACL tears don’t just happen in sports, falls and work-related injuries can hurt they ACL too. The elderly are also at high risk, as our bodies degenerate as we age. Women are 4-6 times more likely to suffer an ACL tear, likely because of anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | St. Genevieve, MO Physical Therapy

After an ACL tear, you’ll likely feel pain in the middle of the knee. You might not necessarily feel considerable pain after an ACL tear unless other parts of the knee were also injured. Some signs that you might have suffered an ACL tear are:

• Feeling or hearing a pop in your knee
• Not being able 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 sustained an ACL tear, it’s important to see a doctor or a licensed physical therapist in St. Genevieve, MO to verify your injury and get you the treatment you need. We offer no-cost, no strings attached injury screenings and have a great network of excellent physicians in St. Genevieve, MO that we can refer you to. 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.

How to Treat an ACL Tear | St. Genevieve, MO Physical Therapy

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

Directly following your ACL tear, you should use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to mitigate pain and swelling. In an examination, a doctor will assess your mobility, and likely order an MRI to verify the ACL tear and evaluate the extent of the injury.

Because blood does not flow to ligaments, a complete ACL tear will not be able to heal on its own. This means that you will need the help of licensed professional physical therapists in order to return to the activities you love. The only way to fully repair an ACL tear is through surgery. So, surgery is often advisable for younger people, athletes who need a fully healthy ACL in order to perform, patients with other serious damage to their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes pain or weakness when carrying out basic, everyday tasks. In an ACL surgery, a surgeon will remove the injured ACL, take a graft from another one of your or a donors tendons, and use small incisions to attach it to the bones.

Once the new ligament is in place, you still have a long way to go before you’ll feel fully back to normal. After surgery, you’ll likely be given crutches so you can get around for the next few weeks, as your quadriceps muscles will weaken from disuse. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in St. Genevieve, MO to optimize your recovery and the success of your surgery. Our ACL tear physical therapy specialists will lead you through your recovery process with a personalized treatment plan that has been proven to work. As part of your treatment plan, we will:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Provide patient education so you understand your injury and why our methods work
• Gradually and effectively allow you to put weight on your knee again
• Fit you for a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Perform movement exercises and balance exercises to return range of motion
• Do strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Possibly implement electrical stimulation to return strength and flexibility

You have the best chance for a full recovery by actively participating in it and trusting the licensed St. Genevieve, MO area physical therapists of Axes. Before you know it, we will get you back to tearing up the local softball league, or just enjoying being able to to sit down and stand up without feeling any instability in your knee.

How to Prevent an ACL Tear | St. Genevieve, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, many people sustain a second ACL tear and they can have permanent consequences. Included in your treatment program in St. Genevieve, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will educate you on how to avoid another ACL tear down the line. Some of the preventive methods you can take in order to prevent further injury are:

• Strengthen your core
• Having strong hip and leg muscles
• Practice proper form, for instance landing evenly on both feet
• Stretch consistently
• Increase your balance
• Always warm up before sports or other physical activities
• Always wear appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists dedicate themselves not only to getting you back to the things you love to do, but doing everything possible to make sure that you stay off the sidelines.

Some of the other services we offer in St. Genevieve, 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 St. Genevieve, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to experience anxieties about your what your life will look like in the future after suffering a severe injury. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, you probably want to get back to your normal, active lifestyle as quickly as possible. Trust in the knowledgeable professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work with you to create a proven, personalized rehabilitation plan to return you to the football field, gymnasts’ mat, or just back to your normal, pain-free life. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.