Knee Surgeons Discover Previously Unknown Ligament in the Human Knee

Posted on November 5, 2013

Knee surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have discovered a previously unknown ligament in the human knee. The surgeons say it plays in an important role in ACL tears.

Some patients with ACL-repaired knees continue to experience what is called "pivot shift" after surgery. Pivot shift is where the knee "gives way" during activity. Orthopaedic surgeons Dr. Steven Claes and Professor Dr. Johan Bellemans have been conducting research into serious ACL injuries in an effort to find out why this pivot shift occurs in people with ACL repair surgery.

The knee surgeons started their research with a 1879 article by French surgeon Segond that postulated the existence of an additional ligament located on the anterior of the human knee. Segond described the ligament as a "pearly, resistant, fibrous band." The University Hospitals Leuven knee surgeons located the ligament described by Segond after studying cadaver knees using macroscopic dissection techniques. The ligament, named anterolateral ligament (ALL), is present in 97% off all human knees. The knee surgeons say pivot shift is caused by an injury in this newly discovered ligament.

The research was published here in the Journal of Anatomy. Dr. Claes and Professor Bellemans are currently working on a surgical technique to correct injuries to the anterolateral ligament and plan to share the results in several years. /p>



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