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KNEE SPRAIN
There is a difference in sprains and strains. Sprains involve injuries to ligaments when they are over-stretched. Strains occur in muscles and tendons, the so-called motor units of the body, when they are torn or over-stretched. Knee sprains involve any of the several ligaments that hold the three bones of the knee together. Knee sprains are the most common injuries to the knee joint.
Because ligaments typically have amble blood supply, they have the capacity to heal spontaneously if they are rested and protected from additional tension forces. That’s the good news.
But occasionally a sprained knee ligament is severe enough to tear the ligament tissues apart from longitudinally, like a frayed rope or a broken rubber band. These severe sprains loosen the connections between the bones the ligament is attached to at either end, and make the knee joint unstable. Such is typically the case with a “torn ACL.” Or it can occur with a severely sprained or torn MCL, or any other knee ligament. These severe sprains to ligaments will require surgery to reattach the torn ends of the ligament together, or to replace (“reconstruct”) the ligament altogether in order to re-stabilize the knee joint.