What is the Posterior Cruciate Ligament?
The Posterior Cruciate Ligament or PCL is one of the four main ligaments in the knee. Along with the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) the PCL forms an “X” directly in the middle of the knee joint. Cruciate comes from Latin and means “cross”. This refers to the fact that the ACL and PCL cross each other. If you cross your fingers you get an idea of the relationship of these two ligaments. The knee is the largest and most complex joint in the body. It depends on four (major) ligaments and other muscles and tendons to function properly. There other two ligaments (besides the ACL and PCL) are on the sides of the knee: the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) and the Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL). What does the PCL do? The PCL’s main job is to prevent posterior (backward) translation of the tibia (shinbone) on the femur (leg bone). This is the opposite job of the ACL which prevents anterior translation of the tibia. How is it injured? The most common type of mechanism injury is a direct blo
