 Hi, I'm Dr. Yogish Kamat. I'm a hip and knee specialist and today I'm going to tell you a little bit about the cruciate ligament injury and Reconstruction surgery of the same ligament. There are a lot of misconceptions about cruciate ligaments which are commonly known as the ACL and the PCL. A lot of you might have heard about footballers having torn their ACL and then getting it reconstructed. Yes, an ACL injury happens not only in football, but can affect you and me when we slip and fall or have roadside traffic accidents as well. Wouldn't believe if I tell you that actually a whole one-third of patients who have ACL injuries do not require surgery. There is a lot of misconceptions going on about if I have torn a ligament, I have to get surgery and I have to get surgery fast without which I will not be able to walk. Now these are entirely mis-founding. If you need surgery for a cruciate ligament injury, you need it only if you're having a problem because a fair number of people, particularly those above the age of 45, can very well manage without a cruciate ligament. Now if you need surgery, you must have surgery when you've got a good range of movement and when you have a relatively pain-free knee. There are few times you require surgery in the relatively urgent stage, particularly if you've injured other ligaments as well. If you have surgery, the surgical techniques available are such that we can definitely make you walk immediately and return to work in literally a week or two. There are a lot of patients having ligament reconstructions across the world who are having uses of braces and not bearing weight in the period after surgery. However, 100% of the patients who have ACL reconstruction without any other complex surgery at the same time can bear weight fully. If at all we give them one stick such that they shouldn't twist their knee, they don't need any braces and in our comprehensive center, we have proved and published that we've got outcomes comparable to the best centers in the world by doing this without the use of a brace. Rehabilitation and the whole team approach is very important. Basically, ACL rehabilitation involves four phases. The first being getting a pain-free range of movement. The second being increasing muscle strength. The third in which you train the patient for increased agility and the fourth where you develop a sense of subconscious body position before they can go back to their normal activity and spores. Now a successful ACL reconstruction should be gauged by a young patient actually returning to spot, not walking normally because they could have walked normally even without an ACL. The important success is how many sportsmen actually return back to their spot, how many people with such injuries resume an entirely normal life activity.