If you suffer sharp pain on the outer side of your knee or have knee instability following an awkward movement, you may have torn or injured your Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL). The LCL is a vital part of your knee’s support system and helps stabilize it, protecting it from sideways forces. Injury to this ligament can hinder you from your daily activities or favorite sports.

Lateral collateral ligament injuries can include mild sprains, complete ligament tears, or something in between, affecting how you move and function. Athletes are prone to these injuries, but they can happen to anyone of any age. If you seek LCL injury treatment in Las Vegas, we at Suarez Physical Therapy have the experience and skills to treat you.

An Overview of Lateral Collateral Ligament Injuries

A Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) injury can feel like a sudden blow to your sense of stability, both physically and emotionally. The ligament on the outside of your knee, the LCL, helps to resist outward forces. If you injure your LCL, you could make even the most basic movements, like walking or standing, incredibly difficult.

These injuries have three grades, depending on how badly damaged the ligament is.

  1. Grade 1, stretched ligament. This is the mildest form of LCL injury, where the ligament is stretched but intact. Although you can feel pain and tenderness, you can walk and move with caution despite the pain.
  2. Grade 2, partially torn. A Grade 2 injury is a more severe situation. When part of the ligament is torn, you notice instability in your knee. You also see that your knee is not very strong, and you can feel that your knee will give way when pressure is applied. The pain may worsen, and you cannot put weight on the injured leg. Unexpectedly, your knee can buckle, making everyday tasks and activities difficult to manage.
  3. Grade 3, Torn Ligament. A Grade 3 LCL injury is a complete tear of the LCL. The ligament here can no longer do its job, and the knee loses all stability. You experience severe pain initially, but what follows is a profound sense of instability. You cannot walk without assistance, and your knee might feel floating or disconnected. The worst Grade 3 LCL injuries can affect adjacent structures in the knee, resulting in more complex problems that may require surgery.

The first thing to know is how bad your injury is so you can decide how to treat it.

How a Lateral Collateral Ligament Sprain/Tear Feels

The sensation of a Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) sprain or tear is immediate and unmistakable. This can feel like a sharp, stinging pain on the outer side of your knee, which means something is wrong. The pain is dull in milder cases, like your body's warning when the ligament is stretched too far. But in more severe injuries, the pain is excruciating, running through your leg with each attempt to move or bear weight.

Signs of an LCL injury include:

  • Knee instability – You can feel like your knees buckle under the slightest pressure, making walking impossible.
  • Tender to the touch on the outer part of your knee.
  • Pain when moving your leg, such as turning or twisting it.
  • Swelling or bruising a few hours after the injury.
  • For more severe cases, like a complete LCL tear, the pain disappears following the initial injury, but the feeling of instability remains. You can feel like your knee is no longer under your control, and every step is unpredictable.

Causes of Lateral Collateral Ligament Injuries

Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) injuries often happen in a blink and are usually from sudden, forceful trauma to the knee. The LCL stabilizes the outside of your knee; if an external force is applied, it can stretch the ligament beyond its limits or tear it completely.

This often happens during activities where the knees are tweaked while racing or turning quickly or if they receive a direct blow to the knee.

Direct Impact on the Inside of the Knee

A direct blow to the inside of the knee, which forces the knee outward, is one of the major causes of Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) injuries. This is common in contact sports such as football, soccer, and rugby, where collisions and physical confrontations occur often.

The force pushes the knee out, too much for the LCL to handle. If the force exceeds the ligament’s capacity, it can result in a sprain, partial tear, or rupture.

Sudden Changes in Direction or Non-Contact Twists

Non-contact LCL injuries occur when you suddenly run in a different direction, twisting your knee into an unnatural position. For example, you are playing tennis, and upon planting your foot on the court, you quickly change direction and feel severe pain outside your knee.

Movement like this puts your LCL under much stress, especially if your knee is not aligned with the rest of your body. This can occur without direct contact when combined with your body weight, momentum, sudden motion, and ligament overstretched or tears.

Falls or Accidents

Injury to your LCL can also happen during everyday activities, such as falls or slips. If you slip on a wet surface or trip unexpectedly, your knee may be twisted or bent inward where it should not go. Jolting your movement can suddenly overstretch the LCL, causing a sprained or torn wrist.

These accidents can seem less forceful than sports collisions, but even they can place just as much stress on a ligament, mainly if your knee is already weak or vulnerable.

How The Knee Usually Works

Your knee is among the most complex and essential joints in your body. It supports your weight and allows movement in multiple directions. The knee connects the femur to the tibia to form a hinge, which helps straighten and bend.

The hinge also offers stability as you pivot, twist, and move in many ways. Your knee’s strength and movement come from finely-tuned interaction between bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles.

Three essential bones form your knee joint:

  1. Femur/ thigh bone – The femur runs from your hip to your knee. It is the large bone of your thigh.
  2. Tibia/ shinbone—This bone is larger than the femur and is located in the lower leg, just below the knee.
  3. Patella/ kneecap – This is a smaller bone at the front joint. The kneecap protects the knee from external factors.

The three bones work simultaneously with the help of ligaments to keep the knee stable during movement. This prevents the knee from shifting too far in any direction. To stabilize your knee, there are two primary sets of ligaments:

Collateral Ligaments

The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is one collateral ligament found on the inner side of the knee and attaches to the tibia and femur. It helps resist forces acting inward to stop the landing knee from collapsing. For instance, your MCL prevents your knee from collapsing inwards when you turn fast or jump from a height.

One collateral ligament, the medial collateral ligament (MCL), is found on the inner side of the knee and links the femur with the tibia. It resists inward forces and prevents the knee from collapsing. For example, when you turn fast or jump from a height, your MCL stops your knee from going inwards and collapsing.

Another collateral ligament, the LCL, connects the femur to the fibula. This ligament serves as a barrier against outwardly directed blows to the side of the knee that would otherwise cause the knee to give way outwards.

The LCL is especially prone to injury when a blow or trauma is applied to the inner part of your knee, pushing it toward the outside. This is also known as an “LCL” sprain/tear, one of the common injuries that can occur in such cases.

Cruciate Ligaments

Besides the collateral ligaments, which prevent sideways movement of the knee, two cruciate ligaments ensure the knee's stability from front to back. These ligaments cross each other within the knee joint, forming a strong barrier preventing forward or backward displacement of the tibia.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is perhaps the most popular in humans. It is responsible for restraining tibia movement towards the femur. ACL injuries are usually very striking and occur when a person quickly changes direction, makes sudden stops, or lands improperly.

The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is situated at the back of the knee and stops the movement of the tibia from going too far backward. Although not as common as ACL injuries, damage to the PCL greatly affects the knee's stability, especially when you kneel or squat.

All these ligaments work together to form an even system that allows you to move without falling over. However, if one ligament, such as the LCL, sustains an injury, it damages the whole system, causing instability, pain, and an inability to move properly. This interconnection explains why damaging even a single ligament may seriously affect how your knee operates.

Diagnosing Lateral Collateral Ligament Injuries

Patient history, physical examination, and advanced imaging tests are all necessary to determine if there is any injury to the lateral collateral ligament (LCL). You first discuss this with your surgeon, and they ask you certain questions.

For example, did the injury occur abruptly, such as a direct impact on the inner side of the knee, which could point toward an LCL tear? Also, your physician will inquire about the exact timing of the pain onset, your activity by then, and whether you perceived any “pop” sound or your knee experienced instability.

The physician will feel the bump over your knee joint and examine you physically, moving your knee in different directions to see if it is stable or unstable. Gently push down on one side of your knee and push your leg toward the other to see if your joint moves freely or stays stable. This manual evaluation can help determine if there is an LCL injury, but it is better done with a few imaging techniques.

X-rays can rule out fractures or dislocated bones. However, X-rays cannot see ligaments well, so more sophisticated tests are often needed to confirm LCL injuries.

MRI is widely regarded as the most accurate way of diagnosing ligament tears. It offers a close view of the structure inside your knee and thus helps determine how bad it is. If there are concerns for multiple ligament injuries and surrounding soft tissue damages, an MRI may provide a comprehensive view of the internal structures of the knee.

Sometimes, healthcare providers may use ultrasound to see the LCL quickly, especially without invading anything else around it. Although it does not give as much information as MRI, ultrasound can help evaluate ligament integrity, particularly in clinical settings.

Medical Management

The severity of a lateral collateral ligament (LCL) injury determines how it is treated. There are three grades of LCL injuries, and each is treated differently.

Treatment for Grade 1 LCL Injuries

Grade 1 LCL injury treatment aims to reduce inflammation and pain so the ligament heals naturally. Most healthcare providers recommend the RICE method—rest, ice, compression, and elevation—to help speed up recovery.

This is where rest is essential. You’ll have to avoid any activity to avoid stress on the ligament. Second, if a knee brace or compression bandage helps stabilize the joint, ice may be applied several times daily to reduce swelling. It also helps reduce swelling by putting your leg up whenever you can. Your doctor may prescribe anti-inflammatory medications to help control the pain and the inflammation.

After the pain is gone, you will start a physical therapy program to strengthen the muscles around the knee, increase stability, and prevent future injuries. If you follow proper care during the healing process, most patients with a Grade 1 injury will fully recover in two to four weeks.

Treatment for Grade 2 LCL Injuries

In grade 2, you need rest and physical therapy. You also need a hinged knee brace to limit movement and protect the ligament as it heals.

Your healthcare provider will monitor your healthcare. The first treatment could be pain management, decreasing swelling. Physical therapy will then concentrate on gaining back motion and building strength afterward. You will then go through controlled exercises with the therapist to revitalize the knee. This careful balance of recovery from a Grade 2 tear is resting and targeted movement.

It may take six to eight weeks to heal a Grade 2 LCL injury rather than a mild sprain. The goal is to regain full function without making the ligament worse.

Treatment for Grade 3 LCL Injuries

Almost all Grade 3 tears of the ligament require surgical treatment to repair and re-establish knee joint stability.

In surgery, the torn ends of the ligament are sewn or grafted together with tissue from another part of your body. After surgery, you will be placed in a knee brace to immobilize the joint and facilitate healing. Physical therapy will be an essential part of your recovery, and you will undergo an extensive rehabilitation program to ambulate back to the level of function and ability with strength, mobility, and stability.

A Grade 3 LCL injury generally takes several months to recover from, with six to twelve months being common. However, it can take longer occasionally, depending on the individual and how well you follow post-surgical rehab.

Preventing Lateral Collateral Ligament Injuries

If you participate in sports or activities that stress your knees, you want to prevent LCL injuries through proactive measures. These are:

  • Strength training. For optimal support, you must build up the muscles surrounding your knee, mainly the quadriceps and hamstrings. A well-rounded strength training program includes squats, lunges, and leg presses. These moves also improve your overall stability and strengthen your knee. The more you do these workouts, the more weight or resistance you should add to keep challenging your muscles and growing.
  • Flexibility. Regular stretching can strengthen your joints' ability to withstand sudden movements without damaging them. Include dynamic stretches in your warm-up before physical activity. Leg swings and walking lunges prepare your muscles and ligaments for action, preparing them for the work your activity will require. Also, post-exercise static stretching ensures your muscles stay long and supple, maintain flexibility, and prevent stiffness.
  • Use the correct form of running, jumping, or pivoting. An unnecessary strain on your knees due to poor biomechanics will increase your risk of injury. Therefore, you should refine your technique with a coach or trainer. The trainer could give you valuable feedback and help you adjust your movements so that you are moving in a way that will not hurt your knees.
  • Wear proper footwear. Proper shoes absorb shock and lessen the impact on your joints. So, if you participate in sports that involve quick lateral movements, find shoes designed for that specific purpose. These shoes often add stability and traction, making you feel safer on the court or field.
  • Warm-ups and cool-downs. Your warm-up prepares your body for the physical demands, and the cool-down helps you recover. Warm up your muscles for at least five to ten minutes by doing light aerobic activity, then stretch your muscles (called dynamic stretches). Static stretch your legs and knees for a few minutes after you work out to help promote recovery and increase flexibility.

Find a Las Vegas Physical Therapist Near Me

Recovering from an LCL injury involves first recognizing the symptoms, such as pain, limited movement, tenderness, and instability. Next, seek the help of a physiotherapist to examine your knee. Early diagnosis prevents the condition from worsening and helps you receive the necessary treatment.

At Suarez Physical Therapy, we offer various LCL injury treatment options, depending on the extent of your injury. Whether considering non-surgical interventions or exploring surgical options, our skilled physical therapists are equipped and ready. Contact us at 702-368-6778 to build the strength and stability you need to return to your daily activities or sports in Las Vegas.