Its amazing how common it is for our canine friends to suffer from Cruciate Ligament Disease and although its all too common not all of us completely understand why this happens and to be honest in all my research there is no real definitive answer so i thought I would try and help to shed some light on this subject, I will do it in in segments and do my best to keep it short and simple. We will first start with a little anatomy if we have a simple understanding of its structure and function then the rest is pretty simple. The stifle or knee is the joint between the femur and the tibia, in between the two bones lies a cushion called the meniscus, this is composed of two C-shaped pieces of cartilage, this helps to lubricate the joint as well acts as a shock absorb-er between the bones. The joint is stabilized by a series of ligaments, these ligaments are responsible for keeping the tibia from sliding too far forward or backward when the knee is flexed, these are the cranial and caudal cruciate ligaments and they cross over the front of the stifle joint. The two ligaments that function to stabilize the sides of the joint are called the medial (middle) and lateral (outside) collateral ligaments, they keep the bones from sliding away from each other in a medial or lateral direction when the knee is extended. thats all you really need to know, I hope you all find this helpful and I have included a picture to assist, next article we will discuss who suffers a CCL Rupture.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 02:44:25 +0000
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