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Ligaments and Ligamentoplasties pp 255–279Cite as

Isolated and Combined Posterior Cruciate Ligament Instability

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Abstract

The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) stands today as the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) did some 20 years ago; it has replaced the ACL as the “enigma of the knee” [83]. The issue of surgical versus conservative treatment still remains disputed. Clinical and investigational research on injuries to the PCL lags far behind our understanding of the ACL. Acute injuries to the PCL may go unrecognized, and it is difficult to assign a strict chronological period to acute versus chronic injuries. The belief that injury to the PCL is a rare event is slowly being dispelled due to better imaging techniques and clinical acumen. The incidence of PCL tears is estimated to be 5%–20% of all ligament tears [12, 14, 42]. Most injuries to the PCL occur in either motor vehicle accidents or athletic events [31], and disruption of the PCL as an isolated injury does occur [13, 47, 71].

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  1. J. C. Fernandes
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  2. P. Ranger
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  1. Biomechanics/Biomaterials Research Group Biomedical Engineering Institute, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, P.O. Box 6079, Station “Centre-Ville”, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A7, Canada

    L’Hocine Yahia Ph.D.

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Fernandes, J.C., Ranger, P. (1997). Isolated and Combined Posterior Cruciate Ligament Instability. In: Yahia, L. (eds) Ligaments and Ligamentoplasties. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60428-7_13

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