In November of 2010, I was playing basketball in the fifth game of my senior season. It was just like any other game. However, I would soon discover otherwise. The match was now well advanced; I got into the lane and got a bad foul. I was so off balance that my knee hit the floor. As soon as my knee hit the ground I heard a “pop” that I will never forget for the rest of my life. Little did I know at the time that that would be the last shot of my high school basketball career. Not long after my injury, I saw a doctor. After taking an x-ray and MRI, the doctor informed me that I had completely torn my anterior cruciate ligament and would need to have surgery. An anterior cruciate ligament tear can be a very devastating injury. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. The ACL is one of the most commonly injured ligaments, injured by approximately 200,000 patients each year. Of the 200,000 ACL injuries annually, surgery is performed in approximately 100,000 cases. There are many types of reconstructive surgery on the ACL. However, there is an alternative to surgery in the form of physical therapy. To understand the importance of the ACL, you need to examine the knee as a whole. The knee is made up of the femur, tibia and patella. Several muscles and ligaments control the movement of the knee and at the same time protect it from damage. Ligaments are dense structures of connective tissue that attach bone to bone and stabilize the knee. Two ligaments on either side of the knee, called the medial and lateral collateral ligaments, stabilize the knee from side to side. The ACL along with the posterior cruciate ligament are made up of a pair of ligaments in the center of the knee joint that form a cross. T...... half of the paper ......ograft. If the graft comes from a deceased person, it is called an allograft. Doctors have tried using some types of synthetic grafts, but so far they haven't worked well. Research is ongoing to see if there are better types of grafts that can be used. Your doctor will discuss your options with you and help you decide which procedure is best for you. Works Cited http://ehealthmd.com/library/ acltears/acl_whatis.htmlhttp://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=5&hid=13&sid=87c4cd0d-b04e-4d32-9a16-c9f8ac841bed%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmUmc 2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ% 3d%3 d#db=mih&AN=42739412http:// www.sportsmedicineclinicdelhi.com/knee_ligament_injury.htmhttp://www.medsolution.com/content/surgery_orthopedic-antcruclig.asphttp://ehealthmd.com/library/acltears/ACL_causes .htmlhttp://ehealthmd.com/library/acltears/ ACL_diagnosi.html