Anterior Cruciate Ligament ( Acl )

Female athletes who participate in these high-risk sports demonstrate a 4 to 6 times greater rate of ACL injuries than males participating in the same sports (Hewett, 2000;

With an ever increasing number of people becoming involved with athletic activities, there is an increasing number of injuries occurring which can be devastating for the individual. Most of the injuries that affect athletes occur in one of four structures in the human body: bones, muscles, tendons, or ligaments. Because ligaments attach bone to bone and play a major part in providing stability for joints, the major stabilizing ligament in the knee, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), assists in performing everyday actions of the human body including sitting, standing, walking, running, dancing, and participating in other sports. The injury that specifically affects this ligament is very serious and always

Several recent studies demonstrate that the rate of ACL injuries among women can be significantly reduced by following proper neuromuscular training (NMT) and conditioning programs.

INCREASE IN TEARS Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are receiving a great deal of notice because of the incidence of injury that occurs not only in the athletic population but also in those individuals who are recreationally active (Russell, 2006). Each year in the United States there are approximately 250,000 ACL injuries. This is approximately 1 in 3,000 in the general population (Boden, 2000). Of these injuries, about 175,000 require reconstructive surgery. These surgeries had an estimated cost of over two billion dollars annually in the United States (Yu, 2007). These statistics alone make it obvious that this injury occurs very often. The ACL is one of the most commonly disrupted ligaments in the knee. While the prevalence of the injury has increased, so has the number of athletes in the world since ACL injury research first began. Women are now allowed to participate in sports and new sports are being participated in

Female athletes can protect themselves through many stretches and prevention programs provided by their coaches, parents and Athletic Trainers. Many ACL tears can be protected by warm- up or cool-down programs or stretching (Ritter). The solution to preventing some of the ACL injuries is a strength and flexibility programs to strengthen the hamstrings, quadriceps and the core while stabilizing the knee (Busse). Working on the athlete’s techniques such as running, jumping and landing techniques can vastly improve their chances of ACL strength and would help prevent against tears (Malamut). Using an ACL prevention program teaches athletes how to align their hips for correct form and how to jump correctly without pain and without being knock-knee.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) of the knee is arguably one of the most notorious parts of the body in the sporting industry. When torn and repaired with surgery, it can leave an athlete out of play for up to 12 months if therapy is consistent over that time period1. There are several different ways to repair the ligament in order to regain functionality and recover stability. In any case, physical therapy plays a vital role in regaining these abilities and returning a person’s knee back to normal.

Throughout my junior and senior years of high school I was a part of the Student Athletic Training Team in the Sports Medicine Department of Wakefield High School. To help better understand the injuries that the team encountered in the field, I enrolled in the Sports Medicine classes that were offered by the school. The classes were taught by the head athletic trainer for the school who believed in hands-on learning, especially for his student trainers. During the duration of the course and my time as a member of the team, I saw numerous different types of injuries; but there were three that occurred most often: an ankle sprain, a muscle strain, and a rotator cuff tear.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are the most common of knee injuries especially occurring during sports related activity. These types of injuries may lead to short-term disability and as well as possible long-term complications. It is estimated that 80,000 to 100,000 ACL reconstructions are performed every year and a significant percentage of those surgeries are performed on female athletes. Female athletes experience ACL injuries about two or three times more often than men due to how the female body matures and her strength, or lack thereof. Because of the wear on a healthy ACL, the ACL might not last an entire athletic career especially in women. Some of the risk factors are unavoidable, such as hormone changes and gender, but the neuromuscular and biomechanical factors are controllable. If a female athlete can be properly strength trained and takes the necessary precautions, like stretching for flexibility and core training for muscle control and balance, she can greatly reduce the risk of injuring her ACL. If she does not take the necessary precautions and does tear her ACL, surgery is required to replace the torn ACL and rehabilitation of that ligament is necessary before returning to sports (Hewett et al., 2012; Siegel et al., 2012). Despite the advances in surgery, the long-term

To provide measurements for safe reintroductions of the athletes to their respected sports, Standard Functional Tests (SFT) have been developed. (8,9,10) Most of these tests combined complex movements together to test and measure strength and neuromuscular control of athletes with activities that resemble athletic movements such as jumping, landing, and cutting. No universal accepted protocol exists to date (11), however, hop tests are the most common used in determining return to play follow ACL reconstruction (12) and have shown good reliability (13,14) and validity (14). Hop tests include single leg hop (SLH), triple hop (TH), cross over hop (COH), and timed hops (15). The single leg hop has been studied extensively and can help detect function limitations for up to 54 weeks postoperatively with good test-retest reliability. (16,17,18,19,20) It has also been shown to be

In the final analysis, ACL tears are more commonly found in females because of the anatomical structure of women, improper body mechanics, and the differences in female’s circulating hormones. The human female structure has many differences to the male structure, such as muscle stiffness, stronger quadriceps than hamstrings, a wider pelvis bone, and smaller intercondylar notches. These differences in male and female structure can lead to why ACL tears are more frequent in females. Another reason as to why females are more prone to knee ligament tears is because of of the improper body mechanics performed by women. During sports, contact or noncontact studies show that women perform cutting movements that are more erect rather than a crouched

The ACL injury becomes more prone to injured as sports increases. Female counterparts have been found the more susceptible than males. Many reasons suggesting for injury intrinsic as well as extrinsic factors.

Football is the most popular sport in the world.1 Playing football can improve musculoskeletal, metabolic, and cardiovascular functions.2 However, football is one of the sports that have the highest risk of ACL injury.3,4 The incidence rates of ACL injury in soccer range 0.15% - 3.67% per person per year and 0.07 - 1.08 per 1000 sports exposures across various age and competition levels.5,6 The majority of ACL injuries occur without external contact to the knee joint.4,8,15

One of the major of concerns among sport teams, coaches and athletes is injury. Numerous injuries occur each year caused by sport, resulting in decreased physical activity and work time lost in addition to substantial medical costs (Murphy, Connolly & Beynnon, 2003, p. 13). The most of the injuries are reported in the ankle and knee joint in the some sports such as football, hockey, lacrosse and basketball (Khabaz et al., 2014, p. 176). Entrancing force from different directions to the knee joint can cause some injuries in it such as injury or tear of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). Rupture in ACL is very prevalent and treatment of it has too cost and time (Khabaz et al., 2014, p. 176). It is obtained that statistical results had shown that 80 to 250 thousand of ACL injuries occur yearly that the most of them have 15 to 25 years old (Garrick & Requa, 2001, p. 2). Reconstruction of this ligament is

In Noyes and Barber-Westin’s study (2015), they developed a neuromuscular retraining program that proved effective in decreasing ACL injury rate in female athletes. This program included a dynamic warm up, a jump/plyometric component and a flexibility component (cite). The purpose of a plyometric component was to teach and emphasize proper jumping and landing techniques. There were 1000 trained female athletes aged 13-18 years old included in the study and the noncontact ACL injury rate of 700 of these athletes was compared to 1120 control athletes to provide

This essay deals with the current treatments, rehabilitation procedures and onsets following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. Within this essay, there will be information including the causes, characteristics, and symptoms of ACL injuries. Throughout the United States, there are estimated to be 200,000 ACL injuries per year with 100,000 of those injuries being treated through ACL reconstruction (Evans, Shaginaw, & Bartolozz, 2014). With a satisfactory ACL reconstruction outcome between 75%-97%. From the 10%-15% failure rate of ACL reconstruction, the primary fault is due to technical mistakes at 70% (Samitier, Marcano, Alentorn-Geli, Cugot, Former, & Moser,