On December 2, Dr. Slauterbeck returned for the final day of trauma week, and our focus was ACL tears because the patient had a tib-fib fracture. The knee has effusion which means it's bleeding and is going to swell later. ACL tears do occur more in men primarily because of contact sports, namely football. Outside of football, women tend to tear more because they aren’t hamstring-dominant like men and have less string material protecting them. Being hamstring dominant is important because it holds back the knee, meaning when extra force or pressure is applied, the hamstring won’t let the knee snap out of place. ACLs generally can take 2000 Newton’s of force, and tears can occur from overworking the ACL or intensive sports. Since you can’t repair an ACL, you have to reconstruct it, so the surgery is to take some of a tendon, drill a hole in the bone, then put the tendon in the bone and screw it back in place. With that, our patient starts his path to recovery and, most likely early arthritis. This was a great trauma week, and I honestly prefer it compared to last year's.
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