[Hemarthrosis and the cruciate ligaments - morphological studies. 2]

Some morphological investigations were conducted with cruciate ligaments of rabbits which had been exposed to post-traumatic hemarthrosis for different periods of time and submitted to an additional lesion of the synovial sheath. Already one week later, histologic examination under the microscope showed significant modifications of the fibrous structure of these ligaments. These modifications persisted for several months and consisted in bloatings of the individual fibres, disaggregations of the fibrous structure, partly even cystic necrosis. The electron microscope allowed to give a more precise definition of the modifications and to demonstrate morphologically the structure alteration of collagenic fibres caused by hemarthrosis. The visible alterations of the fibrous structure of such cruciate ligaments will partly persist still for a long time after the restitution of their full mechanical loading capacity.