ABSTRACT
The knee joint is an anatomically and biomechanically very complex joint that plays a major role in all physical activity and sports. The knee joint is the joint that suffers the most injuries in sport, even if reliable incident numbers are lacking. At an ordinary Sports Medicine clinic, of all patients, patients with injured knees represent between 30 and 50%. The most commonly injured structures in the knee that athletes seek a physicians’s advice for are: anterior cruciate ligament (ACL),
the medial (inner) meniscus and the medial (inner) collateral ligament (MCL), which together account for over two-thirds of all traumatic knee injuries in sport. Other structures which may be injured include lateral (outer) meniscus, lateral (outer) collateral ligament (LCL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Articular cartilage is often damaged simultaneously with ligament and meniscus injuries, but can also be injured in isolation (see p. 158) (Figs 19.1-19.4).
