ACL Tear Greater Winchester, MO. ACL tears have a tremendous effect on your active and daily routine. One second you’re sprinting down the court, competing in your favorite sport or having fun with your kids, and the next instant you’re don’t know if you’ll get to play or even go back to your job again. At Axes Physical Therapy in Winchester, MO, we have devoted our practice to restoring our patients’ mobility and returning them to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work in tandem with you as a team and create tailored treatments plans that have been empirically proven to be effective. If you’ve suffered an ACL tear, or any other injury, in Winchester, MO, contact us online or find the most convenient Axes location for you. We dedicate ourselves to getting every patient great results and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means dominating your local Winchester, MO pickleball league, or carrying your children on your shoulders without any pain.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament | Winchester, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of tough, pliable connective tissue that attach 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 concert to stabilize the forward and backward motion of your knee, and the ACL shields the tibia from slipping too far forward on the femur and provides stability when the joint rotates.

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. However severe your injury, trust in the Winchester, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you fully heal.

Why an ACL Tear Happens | Winchester, 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 frequent knee injuries and sports injuries. They are common in contact sports that call for frequent and fast cutting and switching directions, such as football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. According to data from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, 70% of ACL tears occur in non-contact injuries, such as cutting 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 motion is interrupted just before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven footing or landing awkwardly
• Colliding with something or someone
• A sudden reduction in speed or switching direction
• Pivoting with a firmly planted foot
• Sustaining a direct hit to the knee

Internal Factors

These have to do with the structure and anatomy of the knee and legs. Some examples are:

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

While many ACL tears transpire in sports, they are also common in falls and work-related injuries. The elderly are also at high risk, as our bodies degenerate as we age. Women are 4-6 times more likely to sustain an ACL tear, likely because of anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | Winchester, 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 structural damage was done to the knee. Some signals that you may 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
• Loss of range of motion
• Instability when putting weight on your knee

If you suspect you’ve sustained an ACL tear, it’s vital to see a physician or a licensed physical therapist in Winchester, MO to diagnose your injury and get you the treatment you need. We offer no-cost, no strings attached injury screenings and know many excellent physicians in Winchester, MO that we can connect you with. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist, your doctor and medical providers, and you will join forces and work together to ensure your recovery is safe and efficient.

How to Treat an ACL Tear | Winchester, MO Physical Therapy

It is essential to get effective and personalized treatment soon after your ACL tear. If you don’t, it can result in problems like obesity or osteoarthritis, which can greatly affect your quality of life.

Immediately after your ACL tear, you should 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 range of motion, and likely order an MRI to confirm the ACL tear and evaluate the completeness and grade of your tear.

Because ligaments do not receive blood flow, a complete ACL tear cannot heal on its own. That is why the aid of a licensed professional physical therapist is necessary to return 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 a fully healthy ACL in order to perform, patients whose ACL tears were accompanied by other serious injury to other parts of their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes pain or weakness when carrying out basic, everyday activities. ACL surgery is generally 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’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 Winchester, MO to optimize your recovery and the success of your surgery. Our ACL tear physical therapy experts will guide you through your recovery process with a personalized treatment plan that has been demonstrated to work. Our treatment methods will help to:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Educate you on your injury and the rehab process
• Gradually and effectively get you back to bearing weight
• Provide you with a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Perform movement exercises and balance exercises to increase range of motion
• Perform strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Potentially employ electrical stimulation as a supplement to the exercises

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

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

Unfortunately, second ACL tears are common and they can lead to life-long repercussions. As part of our ACL tear physical therapy services in Winchester, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will help you understand the best practices that help to avoid another ACL tear down the road. We recommend some of the following steps to prevent further injury:

• Strengthen your core
• Strengthen your hip and leg muscles
• Practice correct technique, for instance always landing with your feet directly over your knee
• Stretch consistently
• Perform balance exercises
• Always warm up before sports or other physical activities
• Make sure you are using appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists devote themselves not only to retuning you to the things you love to do, but doing what we can to ensure that you can carry on doing them without being disrupted by another injury.

Some of the other services we offer in Winchester, 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 Winchester, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to be apprehensive 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 in concert with you to implement a proven, tailor-made 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.