DETROIT, MI – SEPTEMBER 18: Jamaal Charles #25 of the Kansas City Chiefs is driven off the field after being injured against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on September 18, 2011 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)

Technological advancements in sports science continue to amaze and change the way athletic injuries have been treated over the years. We may be inching closer and closer to what many are calling a potentially groundbreaking advancement in how ACL injuries are treated.

Over the course of the past year a total of 10 patients have undergone a somewhat experimental procedure called Bridge Enhanced ACL Repair. Instead of the more traditional method of replacing a torn tendon with a tendon from elsewhere in the body, this new procedure soaks a sponge in the patient’s blood and uses that instead. So far, each patient has seen a terrific response and is reported to be as strong as they once were in the repaired tendon following rehabilitation.

“I didn’t think we would see all of them perform this way,” said Dr. Martha Murray in a report by the Wall Street Journal. Murray first experimented with the procedure on pigs. “I thought maybe we would get seven out of 10.”

Ten out of ten ain’t too shabby, but this is just the beginning of the possible procedure that could one day become the norm. If all goes according to plan, the rehab process could be expedited as a result. That would be because the patient would not have to have had a tendon replaced with another tendon, thus resulting in two injuries instead of the one. How much this would speed up the rehab process is unknown and probably best left unspecified for now until more research is conducted. But it certainly comes across as an optimistic spin on what has been one of the more devastating injury in the sports world.

[Wall Street Journal]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.