[Diagnosis and therapy of fresh and chronic posterior cruciate ligament lesions]

Injuries to the posterior cruciate ligament are among the major injuries to the knee joint. Today we are often confronted with an inappropriate and delayed diagnosis of this injury and its concomitant lesions. Additionally, the outcome of operative treatment has not yet reached an acceptable rate of satisfactory results. Therefore, the goal of this current concept review is to give a comprehensive insight into anatomy and biomechanics, injury mechanisms and pathobiomechanics, based on our experiences and data from the international literature. A further goal is to clarify diagnostic problems with respect to clinical examination and imaging techniques. We also present a differential concept for the perioperative and conservative management of posterior cruciate ligament deficient knees in order to also adequately address concomitant injuries such as posterolateral rotatory instability and combined anterior cruciate ligament injuries with the aim of further improving results.