Scientists discover part of the human body never studied before

It seems impossible, but there was still a part of the human body that was unknown to doctors and scientists until a few days ago. Now, in the first week of November, it has just been reported that two knee surgeons have discovered a ligament that has never been studied before, but which appears to play an important role in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

The finding, published in Science Daily, was made by two knee surgeons at Leuven University Hospital in Belgium. For a few years, they observed that although ACL repair surgeries and patient rehabilitation were successful, some people still had episodes of knee sway during activities.

Since then, over the past four years, Dr. Steven Claes and Dr. Johan Bellemans have conducted more research on serious ACL injuries to find out the reason for the occurrences described above. But they already had a clue: an 1879 article by a French surgeon that postulated the existence of an additional ligament located in the anterior part of the human knee.

Investigation and confirmation

The 1879 citation, which had not yet been thoroughly investigated or confirmed, was researched by Belgian surgeons, who were the first to identify the previously unknown ligament after a large cadaver study using macroscopic dissection techniques.

Research has revealed that the ligament, which was named as anterolateral ligament (ALL), is present in 97% of all human knees. With this finding, further research has shown that the oscillation in patients with ACL injury is caused by a problem in this unknown part.

The issues defined in research on severe ACL injuries may signal a breakthrough in patient care. Dr. Claes and Bellemans are currently working on a surgical technique to correct all injuries, and more news will be released in the coming years.

These types of injuries are very common among soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, judo and even skiing athletes. The Society of Anatomy praised the researchers, saying it is important to remind the medical world that knowledge of the basic anatomy of the human body is not yet exhaustive.