doi:10.1155/2012/151342 Research Article The “Oblique Popliteal Ligament”: A Macro- and Microanalysis to Determine If It Is a Ligament or a Tendon

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. This study investigated the importance of the “oblique popliteal ligament ” (OPL), and challenges its alleged ligament status. The currently named OPL is indigenous to the distal semimembranosus (SMT); therefore, by definition is not a ligament inserting from bone to bone. Clinically, a muscle-tendon unit is different then a ligament regarding proprioception and surgery. Methods. Literature search was conducted on texts, journals and websites regarding the formation of the OPL. Dissection of 70 knees included macro analysis, harvesting OPL, distal SMT and LCL samples and performing immunohistochemistry to 16 knee