Ligament

Question 1

lecture objective

Answer 1

1-basic structure of ligaments
2- mechanical
properties of ligaments
3-How ligaments heals
4-How ligaments respond to load

Question 2

Key consideration for optimal tissue management

Answer 2

Tissue type
pathological presentation
nature of the activity
Tissue adoptation

Question 3

what is ligament made of?

Answer 3

70 percent type 1 collagen small amounts of elastin

Question 4

What is crimp structure of ligament?

Answer 4

structure that enables elongation in response to load by straightening of nonparallel collagen fibres

Question 5

Describe Crimp mechanism of ligament

Answer 5

in response to load, ligament stiffens and absorbs considerably greater energy from applied force in a linear fashion until fibre failure occurs.

Question 6

how does gap in ligaments heal

Answer 6

gap fills with scar tissue

Question 7

Ligament healing timeframe?

Answer 7

inflammatory up to 10 days post trauma
Proliferation 4-8 weeks
maturation 8weeks -2 yrs

Question 8

what factors influence ligament healing time?

Answer 8

Gap size
Type of ligament due to expression of genes involved in collagen expression such as matrix production in torn ACL
ligaments need loading for collagen organisation

Question 9

Acute ligament healing time

Answer 9

3 months

Question 10

Intermediate ligament healing time

Answer 10

3-12 month

Question 11

Chronic ligament healing time?

Answer 11

more than 12 months

Question 12

What happens in chronic ligament instability??

Answer 12

-30 fold decline in matrix production
-it cannot be expected that normal healing will occur

Question 13

Key take home messages from ligament lecture note?

Answer 13

-Ligaments elongate in response to load via crimp fibre organisation
-Gaps in disrupted ligament heal with scar tissue
-size of gap influences rate of scar maturation -month to years for full maturation
-Ligaments responds to optimal load by organisation of collagen fibres in direction of tensile forces.