The ACL - Part 2
You may have noticed that I have used the terms “ACL rupture” and “ACL injury” interchangeably. That is because the vast majority of the time, ACL’s either rupture or don’t. In rare cases, the ACL is truly torn partially. When treating an ACL injury, whether partially or completely torn, it's important to understand that the medical community believes the ACL has essentially no self-healing capacity. It is believed that this is the case because the ligament is bathed in synovial fluid surrounding the joint and does not have access to a rich blood supply necessary for healing. With this in mind, we can begin to rationalize treatment.