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Educating yourself is the best medicine By Don Hunt If you�re like most people, you don�t know the ACL from the MCL, and you have no idea what "cruciate" means. So here�s a little lesson. There are four ligaments in a knee. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) runs through the center front of the knee and limits forward motion. The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) runs through the center back of the knee and limits backward motion. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) runs down the inside of your knee joint and limits sideways motion. The lateral collateral ligament (LCL) runs on the outside or your knee and also limits sideways movement. All of the ligaments are about the size of your little finger and help connect the femur (thighbone) to the tibia (shinbone). And now for some definitions. Anterior means at or toward the front. Posterior means at or toward the back. Medial means at or toward the middle. And lateral means at or toward the side. Collateral means a side branch, while cruciate means crossing diagonally. Thus, the anterior cruciate ligament is toward the front of the knee and crisscrosses the posterior cruciate ligament. When an athlete tears a ligament, it�s almost always the ACL or the MCL. ACL injuries often occur without any contact, while MCL injuries almost always involve a collision. MCL injuries are prevalent in football, where players often get hit from the side. Injuries to the posterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments don�t often occur in sports. They�re more likely to happen in a car wreck where a person is thrown into the dashboard and his or her shinbone gets driven into the thighbone. Counting the physical therapy that follows, an average knee ligament operation costs about $10,000. Most surgeons take a tendon from the hamstring or the patellar tendon of the patient and graft it into their knee. Another option is to obtain a tendon from a cadaver, but that�s usually reserved for older patients or performed on someone who has torn the same ligament more than once. Sewing the patient�s torn ligament back together rarely works because the damaged area seldom holds. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.