What is the ACL Ligament?

What is the ACL ligament? Its the frontal crossed shaped ligament that provides stabilization in the knee and connects the bones of the knee.

A reader just submitted this question to Ask Ray! And I hear a lot of people talking about what is the ACL ligament and their surgery, recovery, etc. Yes, I think most of us know that the ACL ligament is the “A” something “C” something “L” ligament of the knee. To really answer the question of, what is the ACL ligament; we need to know what ACL ligament stands for. ACL is the acronym for: Anterior Cruciate Ligament.

What is the ACL can be broken down is as follows:

“A” Anterior = frontal, to the front, facing forward.

“C” Cruciate = Cross shaped.

“L” Ligament = strong connective tissue that connect bones to bones , and stabilize joints in our body.

Posterior view of the PCL and ACL Ligaments

Hence, what is the ACL? It is the frontal, crossed shaped ligament that provides stabilization in the knee and connects the bones of the knee. To be more specific about what is the ACL ligament; it is one of the most important ligaments (of the four “strong” ligaments”) of the knee that connect the tibia to the femur. The ACL ligament is attached to the back side of the femur (distal) within the knee joint and attaches to the front (anterior) of the tibia. (The PCL is the other ligament that forms the cross with the ACL ligament). Since the ACL ligament crosses the knee in this fashion, it is considered cruciate.

The ACL ligament provides stabilization to the knee joint and helps reduce stress that is placed across the knee joint. The ACL ligament helps in doing this by making sure that the weight is transferred across the knee is centered in the knee joint, thereby minimizing wear to the cartilage of the knee.

The roll the ACL ligament plays in movement is that the ACL ligament keeps the forward motion of the major leg bones in check. The ACL ligament holds back the excessive forward movement of the tibia in direct proportion to the femur. In the rotational dimension of the knee, the ACL ligament limits the rotational movement.