Thank you for joining me again this evening for our nightly podcasts. I perform these podcasts in the hopes that you will be able to education yourself on the topics discussed so you can make better informed medical decisions regarding your health in the future. I am doctor Harrison Campbell of Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. Previously we discussed exercise and endorphins. Tonight we will switch topics and be covering the knee in depth.
The knee is a hinge joint which provides us mobility. To break apart the knee first we will look at the bones which form this joint. We will then progress to the ligaments which provide the stability for the joint and to close with the muscles which provide the motion for the joint. As sugar land chiropractors know where ever two or more bones come together a joint is formed. Depending on the joint surfaces a particular joint me be more apt for a particular range of motion. For the knee with the hinge joint surfaces the primary motion is flexion and extension or forward and backwards.
As for bones in the knee there are three which come together. There is the femur first. This bone is the long bone of the thigh and runs from the hip to the knee. Then there is the tibia. This is the long bone of the shin and runs from the knee to the ankle. Finally there is the fibula. This bone is on the outside of the lower leg and runs from just below the knee to the ankle. Now as sugar land chiropractors can tell you the femur and the tibia are the two bones which articulate and form the knee joint. This motion occurs around the condyles of the femur. What this means is that the lower leg glides or pivots around the femoral condyles in the knee to create the forward and backwards motion. As for the fibula this bone articulates with the tibia on the lateral side, meaning outside and runs down to form the lateral malleolus or the boney prominence on the outside of the ankle.
The femur and the tibia are the primary weight bearing bones of the leg. This in turn means these bones have a thicker cortex which allows these bones to bear this body weight. The fibula on the other hand does not bear body weight. This bone functions mostly when we run as it creates an almost spring like effect with the motion it can produce.
Now lets move onto the ligaments. There are four primary ligaments in the knee and most people can name one purely from the acronym, ACL. Now sugar land chiropractors know the ACL as the anterior cruciate ligament. This anterior cruciate ligament from from the lateral femoral condyle to the medial aspect of the tibia. This ligament is responsible for preventing the tibia from sliding forward on the femur or conversely the femur sliding backwards on the tibia. Often times a football player who is impacted on the knee tears this ligament because the femur is pushed back on the tibia causing a rupture.
The paired ligament for the ACL is often abbreviated by sugar land chiropractors as the PCL or posterior cruciate ligament. This ligament runs from the medial femoral condyle to the lateral aspect of the tibia. This ligament works in an opposite fashion to the ACL. It prevents the tibia from sliding posterior on the femur or conversely the femur from sliding anterior on the tibia. Now the reason these ligaments bear the name cruciate is when looking at the knee from the front the ACL and PCL form an X in the knee.
In addition to the cruciate ligaments there are two collateral ligaments for the knee. There is a medial collateral ligament which runs from the femur to the tibia on the inside of the knee for the part of the knee facing the other knee. This ligaments as sugar land chiropractors can tell you function to prevent valgus force on the knee. What this means is it prevents the tibia from being pushed away from the other leg.
The lateral collateral ligament runs from the outside of the femur to the outside of the tibia and prevents varus forces on the knee. A varus force wants to push the tibia to the other leg. These two ligaments combines are what prevent the femur or tibia from sliding lateral and medial in the joint plane.
All four of these ligaments provide the stability in requires to stand. A sugar land chiropractors can tell you an injury to even one of these ligaments leaves the knee feeling weak and unstable, feeling like the knee wants to collapse underneath you. A third part of the knee which I will include with the ligaments but it is not a ligament is the meniscus. This functions as a shock absorber and helps the tibia glide along the femoral condyles. There are two menisci in each knee. They are C shaped discs along the bottom of the femoral condyles. An injury to this can create problems with motion in the knee. Picture a pothole in the road when the knee is gliding and it can create catches during the motion.
Unfortunately we have run out of time before we could get to the musculature of the knee. We will have to review that information in a different podcast. That being said I do hope you found the information we did over on the knee helpful and informative.
Thank you for joining me again this evening for another great podcast. I hope you enjoyed the discussion on the anatomy of the knee. As always should you or someone you know require a sugar land chiropractors services or simply have more questions on what was discussed please call Restoration Health today. We would love to schedule you an appointment and get you on the path to better health today. Thank you once again for joining us. Have a good night.