Physiotherapists in Loughton treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Sprain (ACL)

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major ligaments of the knee joint which stabilise the joint against inappropriate movement in all directions. The ACL crosses the joint from above to below and prevents the tibia (shin bone) from slipping forwards under the condyles of the femur or thigh bone. It is a very strong ligament and very important for knee stability in activities and sports. It is most commonly injured in non-contact situations when the person is changing direction quickly such as in cutting or side-stepping in sport but can also be injured in tackles and other interactions involving another person.

Many people who have had an ACL injury report that they heard their knee go .pop. at the time, accompanied by a severe pain and an inability to weight bear on the limb. The knee typically swells up very quickly, within minutes or hours, as it fills with blood from the injury due to the rupture of the blood vessels in the ligament. Initial treatment is to splint the knee and perhaps remove some of the blood from the joint by a needle. Due to the risk of arthritis developing, the main treatment is almost always surgical reconstruction of the ligament.

The Shoulder

The human shoulder is a design of great functional ability and ingenuity, designed entirely around placing our hands in the places we want them to be. The hand is the tool with which we connect with the world and we need to be able to place it in a great variety of positions so we can manipulate objects. The shoulder contributes to a very large extent to our ability to do this and to achieve this goal it has an extremely large range of motion permitting great flexibility. However, in satisfying the requirement for flexibility it sacrifices stability.

To allow the large range of motion the shoulder is designed with a relatively small socket and a very large ball, the head of the arm bone. The shoulder capsule, the fibrous ligamentous bag which surrounds and supports the joint, is relatively lax and contributes little to stability. The nervous and muscular systems have the job of keeping the large humeral head balanced on the small glenoid cavity (shoulder socket). The large shoulder muscles are more concerned with gross movements of the shoulder, and it is the rotator cuff muscles which perform much of the stabilising work of the joint.