New Knee Ligament Found (Again)

[jiveturkey]

There's some cool photos in the link.

http://www.ideastream.org/news/npr/243710560

Doctors have long overlooked a tiny band that connects two bones in the knee. Now Belgium surgeons say that's a mistake. The obscure structure is a full-fledged ligament. When it malfunctions, people recovering from anterior cruciate ligament injuries may run into trouble.

About 150 years ago, a prestigious surgeon in Paris found a new body part while operating on some his patients. He described the structure as a pearly, "fibrous band" on the outside of the bones in the knee.

That sure sounds like a ligament. But nobody really gave it much thought. And poof! Over the next hundred years or so, the body part was pretty much forgotten.

Then in the 1970s, the mysterious band of tissue reappeared in the medical literature every now and then. It went by several names. No one was really sure what the heck it was doing or even could tell with certainty which bones it connected.

Until now.

Orthopedic surgeons in Belgium have hunted down the enigmatic structure in cadavers. And what do you know — the good Parisian doctor was right.

There is an overlooked ligament in the knee. And it might be important for keeping your knee from twisting and turning, especially after an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.

Dr. Johan Bellemans and his team at the University Hospital Leuven described the ligament a few months ago in the Journal of Anatomy. They named it the anterolateral ligament, or ALL, and they offered the first clear data on what it's function is.

"It's eye-opening and provocative work," says Scott Rodeo, the chief of orthopedic surgery at the Hospital For Special Surgery in New York City. He wasn't involved in the study, but he saw Bellemans' team present the work at a conference.

"We've known for years that there was a hardened, fibrous tissue in this location," he tells Shots. "And that this area of tissue plays some role. So it's not such a dramatic discovery but kind of a rediscovery — or a refocusing of attention."

The ALL is about the length of a small thumb. The band connects the thigh bone to the shinbone on the outside of the leg. The ligament probably helps to keep the knee from rotating inward, the researchers suggest.

Damage to the ALL may be one reason why some people don't bounce back after ACL surgery. About 9 in 10 people who have their ACL repaired can return to sports with no problems at all, Rodeo says. But for some, the knee still isn't quite right. It buckles abnormally or gives way during sports.

"The ALL may have a role in small percentage of patients with persistent problems after the reconstruction of their ACL," Rodeo says. "We need to learn more about its function and pay more attention to it."

Even after ACL surgery is successful, Rodeo says, about half of people develop arthritis in the knee 15 years later.

"The next frontier in knee surgery is preventing arthritis," he says. "Should we start to focus on this ligamet? Maybe."

[rageeumr]

Although it was just found, Tony Moeaki has already been confirmed to have torn it.

[BlackHelicopters]

Originally Posted by rageeumr

Although it was just found, Tony Moeaki has already been confirmed to have torn it.

Lorenzo Cain sprained his while retrieving the newspaper from the driveway.

[Rain Man]

After 10 million knee surgeries, how is there a thumb-sized ligament that no one knew about? That seems insane.

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

After 10 million knee surgeries, how is there a thumb-sized ligament that no one knew about? That seems insane.

you know, it's sort of messy and nasty in there during surgery...
blood, screaming and such...

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

After 10 million knee surgeries, how is there a thumb-sized ligament that no one knew about? That seems insane.

Crap like this is why medical "science" is a bit of a joke as far as the "science" part. All the cool "sciency" stuff happens at the cellular or genetic level these days. I'm convinced that the rest of the field is mostly populated by castoffs.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Crap like this is why medical "science" is a bit of a joke as far as the "science" part. All the cool "sciency" stuff happens at the cellular or genetic level these days. I'm convinced that the rest of the field is mostly populated by castoffs.

Oh, this was a serious post? Nothing cool happens outside of the molecular level?

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

Oh, this was a serious post? Nothing cool happens outside of the molecular level?

Not entirely serious (quite a bit of hyperbole) but I have long struggled with the slipshod science that goes on in the medical field. This is a near PERFECT example. Exactly HOW does something like this get "missed?"

This isn't really a terribly unique situation. This kind of arrogant assumption of "we know everything" about a particular subject (anatomy) happens ALL THE TIME in medicine. My favorite is in virology when something can't be explained and so they just make shit up. Can't explain why the AIDS virus doesn't show up for years? Oh well, umm... it's DORMANT! yeah that's it. Of course that supposition was completely wrong and yet it was held as fact without a shred of evidence. I can go on and on with examples of shoddy lazy science in the field. (yes it happens in other fields as well but none that I have seen to the degree it does here)

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Not entirely serious (quite a bit of hyperbole) but I have long struggled with the slipshod science that goes on in the medical field. This is a near PERFECT example. Exactly HOW does something like this get "missed?"

This isn;t really a terribly unique situation. This kind of arrogant assumption of "we know everything" about a particular subject (anatomy) happens ALL THE TIME in medicine. My favorite is in virology when something can't be explained and so they just make shit up. Can't explain why the AIDS virus doesn;t show up for years? Oh well, umm... it's DORMANT! yeah that's it. Of course that supposition was completely wrong and yet it was held as fact without a shred of evidence. I can go on and on with examples of shoddy lazy science in the field. (yes it happens in other fields as well but none that I have seen to the degree it does here)

That may have been an incorrect assumption (of course, molecular, as Ebola points out), but it wasn't without precedent. There are a litany of viruses and other microorganisms that lay dormant for months-years at a time--CMV and various herpes viruses for example.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Not entirely serious (quite a bit of hyperbole) but I have long struggled with the slipshod science that goes on in the medical field. This is a near PERFECT example. Exactly HOW does something like this get "missed?"

This isn't really a terribly unique situation. This kind of arrogant assumption of "we know everything" about a particular subject (anatomy) happens ALL THE TIME in medicine. My favorite is in virology when something can't be explained and so they just make shit up. Can't explain why the AIDS virus doesn't show up for years? Oh well, umm... it's DORMANT! yeah that's it. Of course that supposition was completely wrong and yet it was held as fact without a shred of evidence. I can go on and on with examples of shoddy lazy science in the field. (yes it happens in other fields as well but none that I have seen to the degree it does here)

Uh, there was a paper published in Nature last week that said not all dormant HIV can reactivate. Is that what you are talking about or is it something else? Not sure what you are talking about when you say it doesn't go dormant (actually latent is a better term).

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Crap like this is why medical "science" is a bit of a joke as far as the "science" part. All the cool "sciency" stuff happens at the cellular or genetic level these days. I'm convinced that the rest of the field is mostly populated by castoffs.

Jesus ****ing Christ.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Crap like this is why medical "science" is a bit of a joke as far as the "science" part. All the cool "sciency" stuff happens at the cellular or genetic level these days. I'm convinced that the rest of the field is mostly populated by castoffs.

yeah...

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Crap like this is why medical "science" is a bit of a joke as far as the "science" part. All the cool "sciency" stuff happens at the cellular or genetic level these days. I'm convinced that the rest of the field is mostly populated by castoffs.

as a molecular genetics (almost) phd, this isn't strictly correct--lot of cool shit going on at the macro level, man.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Ebolapox

as a molecular genetics (almost) phd, this isn't strictly correct--lot of cool shit going on at the macro level, man.

My comment was more about the level of competency of the people involved at the various levels. I place far more trust in the geneticists and cellular biologists than I do many others in the field. Of course this is a giant generalization that of course has huge exceptions to it.

[TimeForWasp]

Is it a legitimate ligament?