New Knee Ligament Discovered

[MsProudSooner]

It's hard to believe this ligament had never been discovered before. I wonder if it could play a part in women's tendency to have more knee injuries.

http://www.kuleuven.be/english/news/new-ligament-discovered-in-the-human-knee

 

[SoonerNorm]

Very interesting!

 

[rocjunkie]

Thanks MPS, just when you think the Doc's know, they learn something new. Very good read.

 

[sybarite]

I thought this was absolutely stunning. We can throw protons at protons at the speed of light in a twenty mile circumstance circle that is enclosed in a chamber kept at just above absolute zero by liquid nitrogen, just hoping to see enough collisions to be able to postulate the existence of matter (the entire description is simplified and not accurate). But, we haven't noticed a ligament with all of the bodies that we have dissected?

I wonder how many times someone did notice the ligament and simply ignored it as an anomaly simply because they had accepted the idea that if it were supposed to have been there, it would have a name and be in a dissecting atlas?

 

[MsProudSooner]

I never took the anatomy class - where you have your very own cadaver. Don't they look at the knee in anatomy class?

 

[sybarite]

The problem that you find in an anatomy class is that the body is never like the manual. Ontogeny takes different courses. You hear about the big things, like a child born with a two-chambered heart. These are significant enough that they often require surgery if there is even a corrective procedure. But, you don't hear that there may be ten little arteries that have a name that are either not exactly where described in a book, or may not be there at all. The same is true of nerves, muscles, etc. There is a major league pitcher (Downey?) that is missing a muscle out of his elbow. Began with the Rangers, and they pretty much traded him when they found out about the anomaly, upon which he became pretty good.

If the manual says that a particular artery is supposed to be there, you just assume that it is an anomaly when it is three inches from where it is supposed to be or isn't there at all. Yet, the animal developed in such a way to survive the absence of the artery. Likewise, it there is an artery there that you don't have a name for, you assume that it is an anomaly, peculiar to that individual. He is the only member of the species that has that artery there---assumption. Reality is that there are little differences in almost everyone. I don't know this for a fact, but I would suspect that identical twins, who are genetically exact, have many such little differences. After all, we can tell them apart as a rule.

I suspect that this ligament has been seen hundreds or thousands of times before, but that it has been regarded as an anomaly.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Here's more information and a better diagram:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/07/243710560/surgeons-discover-quirky-knee-ligament-all-over-again?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

 

[Soonerbay]

More on a ligament....ACL specifically. Good information!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/what-to-do-if-your-child-tears-an-a-c-l/?_r=0

 

[SoonerNorm]

Since this is Maddie's second severe knee injury in her first two years of college, I can't help but wonder if...no, I can't say it.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Since this is Maddie's second severe knee injury in her first two years of college, I can't help but wonder if...no, I can't say it.

My daughter's orthopedic surgeon told me that in addition to the anatomical differences that make women more prone to ACL injuries than men, individual women's ligaments sometimes tear easier than men's. Also, if I remember correctly, he said that the ACL attaches at the back of the femur and at the front of the tibia. The point where the ACL passes under the femur is usually shaped like an arch, but in some women it is shaped like an inverted V. In women whose anatomy is like this, the femur can slice through the ACL like a knife through butter. Whenever I hear of a girl having ACL injuries in both knees, I suspect something anatomical within her knees.

 

[YCN]

Since this is Maddie's second severe knee injury in her first two years of college, I can't help but wonder if...no, I can't say it.

Please excuse me if I seem to be rambling in this post.

There seems to be a black Cherokee that is peripherally associated with this topic. And I am using the term "black Cherokee" for historical reasons only.

The decoding of the human genome and subsequent research have absolutely determined that the human concept of race is simply wrong. We are all simply humans.

Thank our founding country (Great Britain) for that. They were the primary promoters of "race" and also (primarily the British Navy) the people responsible for more species extinctions than anyone else on the planet.

Anyway, step forward to The Trail Of Tears. Our government, disturbed by the notable tendency of native Americans to resist the conversion to the anglo-saxon norm, forced many natives to relocate from their homelands to the great unassigned lands, now known as Oklahoma, or "Land of the Red Man."

A superb basketball player from the capital of the Cherokee nation lost her first two seasons to ACL injuries in both knees. That player is Angel Goodrich. She got the slang name of black Cherokee owing to the fact that she is descended from slaves of the Cherokee (at the time a prosperous people) who were made members of that nation when they survived The Trail Of Tears.

Because of her injuries, Angel was one of the last players taken in this year's WNBA draft. She was the starting point guard for the Tulsa Shock this year.

Don't give up on Maddie. I assure you, she hasn't given up on herself.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Please excuse me if I seem to be rambling in this post.

There seems to be a black Cherokee that is peripherally associated with this topic. And I am using the term "black Cherokee" for historical reasons only.

The decoding of the human genome and subsequent research have absolutely determined that the human concept of race is simply wrong. We are all simply humans.

Thank our founding country (Great Britain) for that. They were the primary promoters of "race" and also (primarily the British Navy) the people responsible for more species extinctions than anyone else on the planet.

Anyway, step forward to The Trail Of Tears. Our government, disturbed by the notable tendency of native Americans to resist the conversion to the anglo-saxon norm, forced many natives to relocate from their homelands to the great unassigned lands, now known as Oklahoma, or "Land of the Red Man."

A superb basketball player from the capital of the Cherokee nation lost her first two seasons to ACL injuries in both knees. That player is Angel Goodrich. She got the slang name of black Cherokee owing to the fact that she is descended from slaves of the Cherokee (at the time a prosperous people) who were made members of that nation when they survived The Trail Of Tears.

Because of her injuries, Angel was one of the last players taken in this year's WNBA draft. She was the starting point guard for the Tulsa Shock this year.

Don't give up on Maddie. I assure you, she hasn't given up on herself.

I certainly have not given up and I hope she comes back better than ever. That said, I know that coaches are very concerned with high school players who have had a couple of injuries. Kevi Luper was a prime example. Some on here wondered why she wasn't offered by OU. One of the responses I recall was, she was injury prone. I guess she outgrew that because she went to ORU and was a scoring machine. I'm hoping Maddie has a similar future.

 

[MsProudSooner]

When it comes to knee injuries, the ACL gets most of the publicity and attention from the fans, but in my mind, the injuries to the cartilage have much more potential for poor prognosis. Whitney's delayed return after her first injury was due to the necessity for microfracture surgery. That's due to a lack of cartilage in the knee. I believe that I read that Britney Brown and Erin Higgins both had to have microfracture surgery before their senior season and they were never really the same.

ACL reconstruction and rehab have come a long, long way. As long as there isn't cartilage damage along with an ACL tear, I think that a player who can overcome the mental aspects of the injury has a very good chance to come back 100%.