The knee joint in sports medicine

Excerpt

With the increase in sports participation an equal increase in sports-related injuries has been observed. Over the last few decades injuries of the knee joint have played a major role, due to many popular knee pivoting sports including soccer, skiing and basketball. Treatment options for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have dramatically changed over the last 50 years, as described by Chambat et al. [1], which is the first invited paper in this special issue. Especially for younger orthopaedic surgeons who mainly learn to treat ACL insufficiency by arthroscopic means the development of our thoughts about the surgical treatment of this particular ruptured ligament, e.g. by the change from outside to inside the joint, from augmentation to reconstruction of the ligament itself, has been an interesting journey. Moreover, sometimes older techniques may be of considerable value in certain severe instabilities, to aid attainment of optimal stability. I refer to the articles by Vadalà et al. [2] and Dejour et al. [3] who both use an extra-articular augmentation to increase the stability. Maybe this will become a new trend in the coming years. …