Rupture of anterior cruciate ligament monitored by acoustic emission.

The scope of this study is to relate the acoustic emission (AE) during rupture of human soft tissue (anterior cruciate ligament, ACL) to the mechanisms leading to its failure. The cumulative AE activity highlights the onset of serious damage, while other parameters, show repeatable tendencies, being well correlated with the tissue's mechanical behavior. The frequency content of AE signals increases throughout the experiment, while other indices characterize between different modes of failure. Results of this preliminary study show that AE can shed light into the failure process of this tissue, and provide useful data on the ACL reconstruction.