A new ligament located in the human knee was discovered by two surgeons at University Hospital Leuven.
According to Science Daily, the rare ligament appears to play an important role in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
"Despite the successful ACL repair surgery and rehabilitation, some patients with ACL-repaired knees continue to experience so-called 'pivot-shift', or episodes where the knee 'gives away' during activity," Science Daily informed.
Dr. Stevens Claes and Professor Dr. Johan Bellemans have been conduction research into these kind of injuries in order to find out why it is so.
In 1879, a French surgeon postulated the existence of an additional ligament on the anterior of the human knee.
"The postulation turned out to be correct," Claes said.
The research shows that the new ligament called the anterolateral ligament (ALL) was present in 40 corpses knees out of 41 studied.
"We noted that pivot shift was caused by an injury in the ALL ligament through a subsequent study," Belgian doctors added.
ACL tears are common among athletes who practice soccer, basketball, skiing and football as they turn to apply more pressure directly on pivot point.
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