where is the pcl located in the knee
Posterior cruciate ligament The PCL is located within the knee joint where it stabilizes the articulating bones, particularly the femur and the tibia, during movement. It originates from the lateral edge of the medial femoral condyle and the roof of the intercondyle notch [2] then stretches, at a posterior and lateral angle, toward the posterior of the tibia just below its articular surface.[3][4][5][6]
Human leg Usually, the large joints of the lower limb are aligned in a straight line, which represents the mechanical longitudinal axis of the leg, the Mikulicz line. This line stretches from the hip joint (or more precisely the head of the femur), through the knee joint (the intercondylar eminence of the tibia), and down to the center of the ankle (the ankle mortise, the fork-like grip between the medial and lateral malleoli). In the tibial shaft, the mechanical and anatomical axes coincide, but in the femoral shaft they diverge 6°, resulting in the femorotibial angle of 174° in a leg with normal axial alignment. A leg is considered straight when, with the feet brought together, both the medial malleoli of the ankle and the medial condyles of the knee are touching. Divergence from the normal femorotibial angle is called genu varum if the center of the knee joint is lateral to the mechanical axis (intermalleolar distance exceeds 3 cm), and genu valgum if it is medial to the mechanical axis (intercondylar distance exceeds 5 cm). These conditions impose unbalanced loads on the joints and stretching of either the thigh's adductors and abductors.[9] The angle of inclination formed between the neck and shaft of the femur, (collodiaphysial angle), varies with age—about 150° in the newborn, it gradually decreases to 126-128° in adults, to reach 120° in old age. Pathological changes in this angle results in abnormal posture of the leg: A small angle produces coxa vara and a large angle in coxa valga; the latter is usually combined with genu varum and coxa vara leads genu valgum. Additionally, a line drawn through the femoral neck superimposed on a line drawn through the femoral condyles forms an angle, the torsion angle, which makes it possible for flexion movements of the hip joint to be transposed into rotary movements of the femoral head. Abnormally increased torsion angles results in a limb turned inward and a decreased angle in a limb turned outward; both cases resulting in a reduced range of a persons mobility.[10]