Medical Visualization of Cruciate Ligament Injury
The SKOOP research project “Stable Knee without Surgery” investigates the prospects of healing an anterior cruciate ligament tear with a conservative treatment approach. A medical animation by CAT PRODUCTION GmbH visualizes the injury and healing accordingly.
Treating Cruciate Ligament Tears Conservatively: Stable Knee without Surgery
A tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL “anterior cruciate ligament rupture”) is the most common ligament injury in the knee. For those affected, the diagnosis usually means an operation followed by rehab. LEONARDO – Practice for Orthopedics and Traumatology, under the direction of Dr. med. Thomas Rychen, with SKOOP has developed a treatment concept with which an ACL rupture can heal stably even without surgery. The first clinical results are now to be confirmed in a research project in the coming three years.
Conservative treatment of an ACL rupture
The standard therapy after a cruciate ligament tear is still cruciate ligament replacement for active athletes. In this procedure, the body’s own tendon is transplanted into the knee joint, which subsequently remodels into a new cruciate ligament.
However, a torn anterior cruciate ligament can also be treated conservatively. The decisive factors are the type of rupture, the patient’s activity level, and whether there are any accompanying injuries. The focus of conservative therapy is to improve the muscular stability of the knee joint and proprioception. The absence of the cruciate ligament should thus be compensated for muscularly.
Research project: SKOOP as a further treatment option?
With SKOOP, the team at LEONARDO-Praxis, under the direction of Dr. Rychen, has developed a new conservative treatment scheme with which the ACL can heal stably. After good clinical results with this treatment strategy, the therapeutic success is now to be scientifically verified in the coming three years.
For this purpose, 50 patients with an isolated tear of the anterior cruciate ligament will be recruited and treated according to the SKOOP protocol. The success of the treatment will be checked by various tests, by images after 12 months and subjectively by patient questionnaires.
Medical visualization of cruciate ligament injury
In order to better demonstrate the healing process, CAT PRODUCTION GmbH has created an animation to accompany the research project. Visualizations are now also popular in expert circles in order to better describe medical processes.
The animation within the SKOOP treatment visually depicts the type of injury, the importance of the encapsulation of the anterior cruciate ligament by the synovial membrane, without whose integrity the fusion would not be possible, and the healing process. It is part of lectures that Dr. Rychen gives on this topic, and serves him here as a visual supplement.
