ABSTRACT
As alluded to elsewhere in this text by Woo and colleagues on normal tendons and ligaments, the term ligament is derived from the Latin term ‘‘ligare,’’ meaning ‘‘to bind’’ or ‘‘to tie’’ (Webster, 1970). Skeletal ligaments have since been defined as dense bands of connective tissue that bind or tie two bones across a joint and function not only to guide joint motion (Bray et al., 1991; Frank, 2004) but also act as joint stabilizers (Solomonow et al., 1987; Spalazzi et al., 2006) and as proprioceptive transducers of joint kinematics (Abbott et al., 1944; Schultz et al., 1984; Zimney et al., 1986; Barrach and Skinner, 1990;
Sbriccoli et al., 2005). They are anatomically and functionally distinct from tendons, which connect muscles to bones.
