Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) Injuries

Prevention

To help prevent sports-related knee injures, you can:

• Warm up and stretch before you participate in athletic activities.

• Do exercises to strengthen the leg muscles around your knee.

• Don't increases the intensity of your training program suddenly. Never push yourself too hard. Increase your intensity gradually.

• Wear comfortable, supportive shoes that fit your feet and fit your sport.

Treatment

For all grades of PCL sprains, initial treatment follows the RICE rule:

• Rest the joint

• Ice the injured area to reduce swelling

• Compress the swelling with an elastic bandage

• Elevate the injured area

Your doctor may also recommend a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin and others), to relieve any mild pain or swelling.

After initial treatment with RICE, further treatment of PCL sprains depends on the grade of the injury:

• Grade I and Grade II PCL sprains - Your knee may be splinted in a straight-leg position, and you'll begin an intense rehabilitation program. This rehabilitation gradually strengthens the muscles around the knee (especially the quadriceps), supports the knee joint, and helps to prevent the knee from being injured again.

• Grade III PCL sprain - If the PCL has been pulled away from the bone, surgery may be done to reattach it with a screw. If the PCL is torn completely, it can be reconstructed surgically using either a piece of your own tissue (autograft) or a piece of donor tissue (allograft). With an autograft, the surgeon typically replaces the torn PCL with part of your own patellar tendon (the tendon below the kneecap) or a section of tendon taken from a large leg muscle. Almost all of these surgeries are done using arthroscopic (camera-guided) knee surgery, which uses smaller incisions and causes less scarring than traditional surgery. After surgery to reconstruct the PCL, you'll wear a long-leg knee brace and gradually begin a rehabilitation program to strengthen the leg muscles around the knee.