If you have ever had an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, you most likely knew it immediately because of the symptoms. ACL injury symptoms are pretty standard from case to case, but there are times when someone with an ACL injury has little to no symptoms to alert them to what is going on.
However, most of the time, you will have at least one of the symptoms if you have a torn ACL. It is extremely rare to not have any symptom at all with an ACL injury.
The most common out of the ACL injury symptoms is swelling of the knee. The knee swelling with an ACL injury is almost always present and usually fairly quickly after the injury occurs.
If your knee swells about five to ten minutes after the incident, then you more than likely have torn your ACL.
Sometimes, a person will disregard the swelling as just a normal thing from injuring the knee and will not seek medical attention for several days or even weeks after the injury.
This is bad in many ways, but most importantly because continuing to put pressure on a torn ACL can cause even more knee damage and will need more extensive knee surgery than simple ACL repair.
Always go see your doctor after injuring your knee, especially if swelling is present.
Pain is the next most common out of the ACL injury symptoms. With a torn ACL, the pain can be moderate or it can be severe. It just depends on the person and their tolerance for pain.
ACL Injury Symptoms Pain + Swelling = See a Doctor
Like swelling, many people do not pay attention to the pain as a warning sign that something bad is wrong with their injured knee. They simply think the pain will go away in time as the knee heals.
Again, this is dangerous because you can cause even more damage to your knee.
So, if you have pain with your knee injury, you should definitely go see your doctor or go to the emergency room in order to prevent any further damage.
The final thing on the list of ACL injury symptoms is knee instability. When there is an ACL injury, it causes the knee to be wobbly and can cause the knee to sort of give out, thus making you fall.
This is usually viewed as a nuisance and is something that a lot of people with ACL injuries think they just have to live with.
This is not the case.
The instability of the knee can be fixed with simple ACL repair surgery.
The quicker you get your ACL injury taken care of, the quicker you will be back up to par and can do all of the activities you once enjoyed.