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ACL injuries in Female

Athletes

Introduction
Although ACL is the smallest of the four major ligaments of the
knee, it serves the most important function, which is stabilizing
the knee for rotational movement.
According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon
2007, about 70 percent of ACL injuries in athletes happen through
a non-contact mechanisms such as pivoting, cutting, sidestepping,
out of control play, or awkward landings, while about 30 percent
of ACL injuries occur from contact with other players
Females are likely to have 3 to 9 timer higher risky of getting an
ACL injury

Problem Statement
The importance of the ACL is that it is the main stabilizer of
the knee and without it fast pivoting and twisting actions
become difficult and result in giving way of the knee.
Repeated buckling or giving way of the knee leads to
secondary damage of other important structures of the knee
Females are more likely to have an ACL injury compared to
their male counterparts.
The disparity of ACL injuries is due to hormonal, structural,
mechanical, musculature differences.
A major contributing factor is lack of the the general
population, particularly female athletes, knowing about
prevention of these injuries.

Methods
The data was collected by using databases Google
Scholar and PubMed, along with various articles.
5 primary source articles were used for the research
The population consisted of young female and male
athletes with ACL injuries, since they are at a higher
risk of having an ACL injury than non-athletes.
The disparity of ACL injuries among females to
males may be due to the fact that females have
different structural and mechanical characteristics
compared to men (Hirst, 2007).

Results
Article 1 Approximately 13,000 knee injuries will occur in females
who participate in collegiate athletics and over 25,000 knee injuries can
be expected from high school female athletes in any given year.

Article 2 In Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Rate in NCAA


Basketball, out of 736,076 males, only 49 had ACL injury. However, on
the other hand, out of 639,898 females, 189 had ACL injuries, making
female at a higher risk.

Article 3 It was concluded that 94% of patients who underwent ACL


reconstruction had stable knees after 1520 years from the injury, and
there was a significantly lower percentage of osteoarthritis in comparison
to conservatively treated patients

Results Cont
Article 4 Male basketball players sustained 37 contact injuries and 78
non-contact injuries. Female basketball players sustained 100 contact
injuries and 305 noncontact injuries.

Article 5 There were 89 healthy subjects and 16 ACL-injured subjects


(14 women and 2 men).

Discussion/Conclusion
Females in the community should be well informed about
what factors make female athletes more prone to ACL
injuries than male athletes, and how to prevent injuries.
Billions of dollars are spent on the ACL surgeries and the
recovery of athletes with ACL injuries. Those billions of
dollars could be used for better training, equipment, and
prevention programs for the athletes to prevent ACL injuries
and similar injuries
Lastly, the exact reason that leads to the disparity is not
known, and more broad research could be done on this topic
such as which ethnicity or race is at a higher risk

Reference

Armeau, E., Hirst, E.S., and Parish, T. ( 2007). Recognizing Anterior Cruciate
Ligament tears in Female Athletes: what every primary care practitioner should
know. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Science and Practice, 5(1), 1-7.
Retrieved June 30, 2014, from http://ijahsp.nova.edu/articles/vol5num1/hirst.pdf
Jenkins, L.W., Killian, B.C., Williams,D.S., Loudon, J., Raedeke,G.S.,(2007) Anterior
Cruciate Ligament Injury in Female and Male Athletes; The Relationship
Between Foot Structure and Injury. Journal of the American Podiatric Medical
Association, Retrieved June 29, 2014, from
https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B57aY5wFrmSAZzVwMXlfS EU0akU
Mihata,S.C.L., Beutler, I.A.,and Boden, P.B., (2006) Comparing the Incidence of
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Collegiate Lacrosse, Soccer, and Basketball
Players Implications for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Mechanism and
Prevention. The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, Retrieved June
29, 2014, from
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2qblGkbCITIQTZZajhjNjNDeWc/edit

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