After an ACL reconstruction, strength restoration can take 6-9 months, and it is the single most modifiable factor standing between a patient and a safe return to sport. There are numerous forms of strength that need to be rehabilitated and even quantified after an ACL reconstruction.

Approximately one in four people undergoing ACL reconstruction is found to have a notable, full-thickness cartilage lesion at the time of surgery, according to national surgical registries encompassing thousands of patients. Such injury is most frequently observed on the lateral femoral condyle, the site most vulnerable during the ACL tear itself.

I'm proud to have authored this month's featured article for the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) e-newsletter. My piece, "The PCL Playbook," covers the latest research on the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

Mr Al’Khafaji was proud to take part in a laboratory study published this month in Bone & Joint Research that dug into exactly how these two treatments interact — and specifically, whether hyaluronic acid used makes a difference. Here’s what we found, and what it means for patients.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears rarely happen in isolation. A significant number of patients who tear their ACL also injure the medial collateral ligament (MCL) — usually from the same twisting or valgus (knock-knee) force that damaged the ACL in the first place. Understanding how these two injuries interact is essential for getting the treatment sequence right, because managing a combined ACL-MCL injury is not simply "fix both ligaments at once."

For certain patients (particularly young athletes, those with high-grade pivot shift, or those with specific anatomical risk factors) a technique called lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LEAT) is increasingly being used alongside standard ACL reconstruction to improve outcomes.