The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a ligament in the middle of your knee that connects the front of shin bone thigh bones to the back of your thigh bone and helps to stabilise the knee. Tears (or ruptures) to this ligament can occur when making sharp twists and turns, causing the knee to ‘give way’ or collapse. An ACL repair stitches the damaged ligament back together.
Arthroplasty is a surgical procedure to repair or replace a damaged or diseased joint.
ACI (autologous chondrocyte implantation) and MACI (matrix-induced chondrocyte implantation) are advanced tissue-engineered technologies used to repair damaged articulating surfaces, mainly in the knee joint.
Chondroplasty is a surgical procedure to remove damaged cartilage in a joint.
If your swollen or painful joints, ligaments or tendons do not respond to conservative treatments your consultant may recommend image guided joint injections.
Knee arthroscopy (also called keyhole knee surgery) allows your surgeon to see inside your knee joint using a camera inserted through small cuts in the skin.
This is a procedure to remove your damaged knee joint and replace it with an artificial joint.
As patients live longer and more active lives older knee implants may need replacing.
Under general anaesthetic your surgeon will move your stiff joint to a full range of motion, stretching the surrounding muscles and freeing the joint capsule.
A torn meniscus may not heal on its own as there is a limited blood supply to that area.