Question

1. Clinical Application – exercise prescription rationale: Your patient has a complete Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear and is seeking information on rehabilitation.
   1. Define the primary role of the ACL in knee stability
   2. Which muscle(s) would be most important to assess during your examination and why? What technique would you use to most accurately evaluate the strength of this muscle (isometric vs dynamic contraction)?
   3. Provide one strengthening exercise with rationale that would support the rehabilitation of your patient with the ACL tear.

Answer 1

• The anterior cruciate ligament is the one of four ligaments helps to stabilize the knee joint.A ligament is made of tough fibrous material and functions to control excessive motion by limiting joint mobilty.Of the four major ligaments of the knee the ACL is the most frequently injured.The ACL prevents the tibia from sliding too far forward.The ACL also contribute stability to other movements at teh joint including the angulation and rotation at the knee joint.The ACL performs these functions by attaching to the femur on one eend and to the tibia on the other.
• Hamstring muscles in the upper leg muscles are assessed in case of ACL injury.
• Increassed hamstring strength is theoretically desirable in patients with ACL tears,because hamstring activation can reduce anterior tibial translation by decreassing the load on the passive restrints of the knee,increassing knee joint compression and stabilizing the knee in response to an external varus or valgus load.

The major goal of rehablitation of the ACL tear are Gain good functional stabilty,repair muscle strength,Reach the best possible functional level,Decrease the risk fo re injury.

Closed kinetic chain excercises and Open kinetic chain excercises plays a vital role in muscle strengthing especially quardriceps and hamstring and enhance the knee stabilty.CKC excercises are more safer than OKC because they place less strain on the ACL graft.