ACL Tear Greater St. George, MO. ACL tears can abruptly upset your active routine and daily life. One moment you’re flying down the court, competing in your favorite sport or playing with your children, and the next instant you’re don’t know if you’ll get to play or even go to work again. At Axes Physical Therapy in St. George, MO, we have dedicated our practice to restoring our patients’ mobility and returning them to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work with you as a team and put in place customize treatments plans that have been empirically proven to be effective. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in St. George, MO, contact us online or find the most convenient Axes location for you. Our priority is getting every patient positive results and getting you back to the things that matter most to you, whether that means breaking defender’s ankles on a St. George, MO basketball court, or carrying your children on your shoulders without any pain.

What is the ACL? | St. George, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of durable, pliable connective tissue that attach two bones. The ligaments in the knee help maintain stability in your knee 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 concert to stabilize the front and back motion of your knee, and the ACL stops the tibia from moving 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 put weight on your knee and your motion will be affected. However significant your injury, trust in the St. George, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you reach a complete recovery.

Why an ACL Tear Happens | St. George, MO Physical Therapy

There are as many as 250,000 ACL injuries in the United States each year, 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 data from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, 70% of ACL tears occur in non-contact injuries, such as changing direction quickly, and the rest are the result of direct blunt force trauma. External and internal factors could both be at play when you suffer an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your coordination is disrupted immediately before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven footing or landing with improper form
• Being hit by something or someone
• Suddenly decelerating or changing direction
• Pivoting with a firmly planted foot
• Suffering a direct blow to the knee

Internal Factors

These concern the structure and anatomy of the knee and legs. Examples include:

• The anatomical differences between men and women
• Flexibility of the hamstring
• Differences in genetics

ACL tears don’t just occur in sports, falls and work-related injuries can harm they ACL too. 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 | St. George, MO Physical Therapy

When you sustain an ACL tear, the pain will likely be in the middle of the knee. You might not necessarily feel significant pain after an ACL tear unless other parts of the knee were also injured. Some indicators that you might have suffered an ACL tear include:

• A “popping” sensation or sound in your knee
• Inability to continue activity
• Rapid swelling
• Loss of range of motion
• Instability when putting weight on your knee

If you think you’ve sustained an ACL tear, it’s important to see a physician or a licensed physical therapist in St. George, MO to diagnose your injury and start the treatment you need to recover. We offer complimentary, no-obligation injury screenings and work with many trusted doctors in St. George, MO that we can refer you to. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist is an essential 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 | St. George, MO Physical Therapy

It is vital to get prompt, effective, personalized treatment for your ACL tear. If you delay, or your treatment is ineffective, it can lead to health conditions like obesity or osteoarthritis, which can greatly affect how you live your life.

Directly following your ACL tear, you should use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to alleviate pain and inflammation. A doctor will then examine you, evaluate your mobility, and likely order an MRI to confirm the ACL tear and gauge the severity of the injury.

Because ligaments do not receive blood flow, a complete ACL tear will not be able to regenerate by itself. This means that you will need the help of licensed professional physical therapists in order to get back to the activities you love. The only way to fully repair an ACL tear is through surgery. So, surgery is often necessary for younger people, athletes who need their knee reconstructed in order to perform, patients whose ACL tears were accompanied by other serious damage to their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes their knee to buckle in basic, everyday tasks. In an ACL surgery, a surgeon will remove the torn 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 attached, your journey back to normalcy and the activities you love is still a long way from over. After surgery, you’ll probably be given crutches so you can get around for the next few weeks, as your quadriceps muscles will have weakened. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in St. George, MO to optimize your recovery and the success of your operation. Our ACL tear physical therapy professionals will lead you through your recovery process with a personalized treatment plan that has been proven to work. Our treatment methods will help to:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Educate you on your injury and the rehab process
• Gradually and effectively allow you to put weight on your knee again
• Provide you with a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Perform movement exercises and balance exercises to increase range of motion
• Do strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Possibly utilize electrical stimulation to return strength and flexibility

When you work with the experienced St. George, MO area physical therapists of Axes and take an active role in your rehabilitation, you have the greatest chance of a complete and quick recovery. Before you know it, we will return you to tearing up the local pickleball 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. George, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, many people sustain a second ACL tear and they can cause permanent repercussions. As part of our ACL tear physical therapy services in St. George, 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 proper form, for example keeping knees shoulder width apart while landing
• Stretch consistently
• Increase your balance
• Perform warm-up exercises before sports or other physical activities
• Make sure you are using appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists committed themselves not only to retuning you to the activities you love, but doing everything possible to ensure that you stay off the sidelines.

Some of the other services we offer in St. George, MO are:

• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy
• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Migraine Relief
• Sprain and Strain Treatment
• Geriatric Physical Therapy
• Injury Rehabilitation
• Pain Management Services
• TMJ Treatment
• Herniated Disc Treatment

ACL Tear in St. George, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to be nervous about your your future after being seriously injured. 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 experienced professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work alongside you to create a proven, tailor-made rehabilitation plan to return you to the football field, bowling alley, or just back to your normal, pain-free life. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.