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Posterior cruciate ligament: anatomy, location and function

The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is one of the two cruciate ligaments in the middle of the knee. It stops the tibia from being pushed backward on the femur. It prevents posterior dislocation of the tibia on the femur.

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Highlighted in the model: Posterior cruciate ligament. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. Use Male / Female to switch bodies. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science; knee ligaments, menisci, tonsils, palate and parotid glands from the Human Reference Atlas Visible Human Male model and female parts from its Visible Human Female model (HuBMAP / NIH); lung lobes built from the BodyParts3D chest; all CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The default body is an adult male.

Posterior cruciate ligament at a glance

Also called
PCL
What it is
The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is one of the two cruciate ligaments in the middle of the knee. It stops the tibia from being pushed backward on the femur.
Location
It attaches to the posterior intercondylar area of the tibia and runs upward, forward and medially to the anterior part of the lateral (intercondylar) surface of the medial femoral condyle, crossing behind the anterior cruciate ligament.
Function
It prevents posterior dislocation of the tibia on the femur.
Body system
Skeletal · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA44617 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It is most often torn in a dashboard injury, when the knee is bent and a force drives the tibia backward. Hyperextension can also tear it.
  • The posterior drawer test checks it: the examiner pushes the tibia backward on the femur.

Structures next to the posterior cruciate ligament

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Posterior cruciate ligament (FMA44617). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. TeachMeAnatomy. The Knee Joint.
  3. Kenhub. Knee joint.
  4. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
  5. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
  6. Browne K., Schlehlein H. (2026). 3D Reference Organ Set for Male, v1.10 (Visible Human Male). Human Reference Atlas 3D Reference Object Library, HuBMAP / NIH. CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.