Is a ruptured ligament serious?

There is something connecting two bones at every joint, and that is the ligament. So many people ask if a ligament rupture is serious? If a ligament ruptures, it will affect people's daily activities. The specific impact depends on the degree of ligament rupture, because some ligament tears can be treated through diagnosis and reconnection. Let’s learn more about the details.

1. Ligament rupture

In daily life, ligament injuries in ordinary people are common in the ankle joints, knee joints, metacarpal joints, and finger joints. Ligament rupture is generally caused by rapid movements beyond the range of joint motion during strenuous activities, which leads to passive pulling of the related ligaments and causes tearing or complete rupture. Ligament ruptures are often accompanied by sprains and fractures. Ligament injury should be diagnosed, treated and reconnected promptly. Immediately after the injury, you should apply braking and local cooling to delay and reduce swelling, bleeding and infection, while also providing analgesia, and then go to the hospital for treatment in a timely manner.

2. Differential Diagnosis

Differential diagnosis of ligament rupture:

1. Ligament contusion: It is usually caused by movements beyond the range of joint movement during activities. The degree of ligament injury is not serious, but redness and swelling will occur.

2. Ligament sprain: refers to the injury of soft tissues (such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, etc.) of the limb joints or body parts, without fractures, dislocations, skin and flesh damage, etc. The main clinical manifestations are pain and swelling at the injured site and limited joint movement, which often occur in the waist, ankle, knee, shoulder, wrist, elbow and hip.

3. Ligament strain: In vertebrates, ligaments are cords of connective tissue that connect bones to each other and run closely parallel to elastic fibers. After a ligament is sprained, there will be local swelling, pain, tenderness, and if there is subcutaneous bleeding, a cyanotic area may be seen.

3. Mitigation methods

1. Partial rupture: There is no blood accumulation in the joint. The X-ray in the valgus position shows that the medial joint space is not large. Local closure and elastic bandage pressure dressing can be performed. Early quadriceps exercise can be performed or the ankle long leg plaster brace can be used to fix the knee in varus and slightly flexed position for 3-4 weeks. After the plaster is completely dry, quadriceps exercise and walking can be started.

2. Complete rupture: In principle, surgical treatment should be performed. If the ligament is ruptured, it can be sutured directly; if the bone attachment is torn, it can be fixed with wire penetration or directly sutured to the periosteum and soft tissue. If there is avulsed bone fragment, fix it with wire or screws. If combined with meniscus damage, it should be removed. Patients with combined anterior cruciate ligament injury should be repaired first. Postoperative plaster fixation for 4-6 weeks.

3. Old injuries: Actively and persistently perform quadriceps exercises to increase joint stability. If the joints remain unstable after active exercise, surgical repair can be performed. The medial collateral ligament is replaced by the fascia lata or the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons. Injuries to the lateral collateral ligament are rare and rarely require surgery.

4. Knee cruciate ligament injury: For patients with anterior cruciate ligament combined with tibial spine avulsion fracture, the injury can be repositioned by hyperextension of the knee and posterior tibia push, and then fixed with a long leg plaster for 4-6 weeks. For those who cannot be reduced, surgical repair should be performed promptly. The fracture fragments are fixed with wire. For simple ligament rupture, fix it with plaster. For old injuries, conservative treatment is the main approach. If the joint is still unstable after exercise, surgical repair may also be considered. The posterior cruciate ligament does not need to be repaired.