Science has finally discovered what causes basketball players “bad knees”. Forget finding a cure for cancer, this is important!
Two orthopaedic surgeons have discovered a “new” ligament located in the human knee. It’s called the anterolateral ligament (ALL), not to be confused with the well known anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) so many basketball players and athletes suffer with. This newly identified body part may hold the key to explaining “pivot shifts” and further knee difficulties experienced by patients who have already recovered from ACL.
This discovery validated an 1879 paper written by a French surgeon who hypothesized the existence of a “pearly, resistant, fibrous band” attached to the femur and tibia. Using this information as a starting point, surgeons dissected and examined “41 unpaired, human cadaveric knees”, successfully identifying a “well-defined ligamentous structure in the anterolateral area of the knee”. Their findings revealed that out of the 41 knees in the sample, 40 possessed the ALL as a “clearly distinguishable” part, proving that “pivot shifts” may be attributed to damage sustained by the ALL in the event of an ACL tear.
Why this earthshaking scientific discovery was not discovered earlier was not explained, but doctors are currently devising a corrective surgical procedure for ALL (but not all) injuries, which is expected to be ready in several years’ time. The ALL is the second new body part identified this year, In June an additional layer in the cornea was identified in a study conducted by British researchers.
What’s next? Perhaps a cure for haemorrhoids and Athlete’s Foot; a cure for cancer will just have to wait.