What Is the Best Treatment for an ACL Tear?

Have you or a loved one injured your ACL? This hardworking ligament performs critical jobs. It helps keep your knee stable as you turn from side to side and is a connector between your thigh and shin bone. 

Physical therapy is a standard treatment for an ACL injury. It helps you regain strength in your knee and resume range of motion. Dr. Mohamed Hablas, board-certified physical therapist with Outreach Manual Physical Therapy, treats children and adults with ACL injuries and helps you get back on the playing field or back to work. 

Treatment for an ACL tear depends on several factors: the extent of your injury, activity level, pain level, and age. You can manage some ACL tears conservatively, but a more severe tear requires surgery. Your doctor discusses all the factors with you and makes recommendations for your circumstances. 

How are ACL tears graded?  

There are three tiers of ACL tears. A Grade 1 tear means you have microscopic tears in the ligament, stretching it beyond its typical capacity. We consider this tear mild damage, and you should recover without knee instability.

A Grade 2 tear means that your ACL is not only stretched, it’s partially torn. Whether you need surgery depends on the extent of the partial tear. 

Grade 3 ACL tears require surgery if you’re an athlete who wants to return to competitive play or simply an active person who likes physical activity like hiking, biking, or playing sports for enjoyment. You can get by without surgery if you’re a senior, inactive, and your leg doesn’t hurt. 

Treatment for ACL tears

For any ACL tear, you should use the RICE method: rest, ice, compression, and elevation with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory over-the-counter pain medication. This method helps calm pain and swelling. You can wear a brace to protect your knee while it’s healing. 

Physical therapy is the gold standard treatment for ACL tears of any grade, helping you regain strength and lost range of motion, improve your balance, prevent further injury, and reduce pain and stiffness. 

Physical therapy after ACL surgery 

If you have surgery for an ACL tear, the watchword is patience. Your physical therapist first uses techniques, such as massage, active and passive stretching, soft-tissue mobilization, and electrical stimulation. You do gentle stretches to begin to strengthen your thigh muscles. 

You go to physical therapy up to three times per week. As you progress in sessions, you strengthen all the muscles surrounding your knee and improve your balance and stability.

We give you written instructions with pictures and diagrams of how to do your exercises at home, which you need to do every day. Your therapist tells you how many exercises you need to do and how many repetitions of each exercise to complete. 

Doing your exercises helps ensure an optimal recovery so that you don’t have long-term pain or stiffness in your knee joint. 

Call Outreach Manual Physical Therapy or book an appointment online today if you have a joint injury.