INTRODUCTION
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is a common sports injury occurs widely in the USA with the majority of suffering by healthy individuals with 70% of non contact period, during a variety of movements such as jump landing, cutting and pivoting (21). Different risk factors should be considered for injury, such as environmental, hormonal and biomechanical (18, 19). ACL injury prevalence is very high in soccer as well as other sports in females compared with males (29). Anterior shear force, valgus collapse, quadriceps to hamstring strength ratio (1, 21, 35, 37) are considered as other main risk factors in both genders. Co-contraction of the hamstring and quadriceps has been shown to provide dynamic stability to the frontal plane at the knee that protects maximum knee abduction loading (35). So, the main focus of the study should be on muscular strength between agonist –antagonist muscle of lower limbs and recovery after injury. Female athletes get injured almost 2-8 time higher than the male counterparts (1,5,7,19,21,24,29,33,35). Interesting point for comparing injuries in sports, dominancy of leg plays a role in ACL injury. In a non contact injury, females are more prone to get injured in their supporting leg, whereas male soccer athletes tend to injure the ACL in their preferred kicking leg (5). Biomechanical point of view, such as more extended hip-knee landing technique postures, knee pressure
I have played soccer continuously from age 3 to 18. Four years ago, I tore my right ACL. I endured surgery and 6 months of physical therapy, then almost 2 years later to the day, I was told the same fate again. I had torn the ACL in my left knee this time. Why did this awful injury have to strike me twice? Once again, I endured the months of rehabilitation and soon returned to the field. Having to go through this twice as a teen taught me that perseverance and determination will help you achieve what you want in life. Even though I spent almost 2 years away from the field, I still made every effort to be there for my teammates. Some days I didn’t want to get out of bed because of the pain, I didn’t want to go to therapy, and I wanted to quit.
The magnitude of the problem is clear, as a high incidence of ACL injury, particularly in young athletes. Recent evidence suggests that more than half of athletes who undergo ACL surgery are unable to return to their preinjury level of function after ACLR surgery. Return to sports activities remains a very difficult topic. Thus the research regarding the rehabilitation process of athlete after
Studies have also shown that women in particular, unfortunately have a disadvantage in life when compared to male counterparts, and that is one pertaining to their higher risk for ACL injury. Due to a neuromuscular imbalance that is concomitant with overactive quadriceps strength compared to hamstring strength, females tend to place more stress on the ACL. Accordingly, this increases the pressure on the ACL leading to a higher prevalence of injury that will arise more on the female spectrum than that of the male (Myer et al., 2009). Furthermore, this is important to be aware of for female athletes and for the Physical Therapists who treat them in efforts to provide educational information regarding the relationship of stronger hamstrings correlating to a lesser chance of ACL injury. Personally, I have worked with athletic females in the past as a personal trainer and while I was not strengthening hamstrings with the direct objective to prevent an ACL injury, I was cognizant of the notion that a balanced quadriceps and hamstring ratio was necessary to avoid lower extremity injuries as a
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has limited range of motion, which leads to it being the most frequently injured ligament singularly (Ireland, 1999). This study was conducted to present the epidemiology on ACL injuries in female athletes (Ireland, 1999). Epidemiology is the part of science that focuses on the causes, effects, and patterns of disease and health conditions that occur in specific populations. The epidemiology in this article focuses on female athletes that have had a noncontact ACL injury playing either basketball or soccer (Ireland, 1999).
In female basketball players, neuromuscular, hormonal, and anatomical factors were considered internal factors that were the cause of non-contact ACL tears. Muscle weakness in the gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles along with poor dynamic
The anterior cruciate ligament, more commonly known as ACL, is the most common knee ligament injury. An ACL injury mainly affects athletes or those participating in athletic activities. Over the years, sports have become more popular which has led to an increase in ACL injuries. This increase led orthopedic surgeons to create many operations over the past fifteen years that reconstruct this ligament.
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
A torn ACL is a injury in which also is a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the knee. When someone tears their ACL they have to have a surgery to replace it. ACL injuries range from mild, such as a small tear, to severe such as when the ligament tears completely or when the ligament and part of the bone separate from the rest of the bone. A lot of the time some of the other knee ligaments or parts of the knee are also injured. This includes cartilage such as the menisci, or bones in the knee joint they also can be broken. Your ACL can be broken during sport activities. During an activity if your leg is planted firmly on the ground then hit by a heavy/large force it could tear the ACL. Some ways your ACL can be tore is by being bent backwards,
The Anterior Cruciate Ligament also known as the ACL is deemed the most commonly torn ligament in the knee and can result from both contact and noncontact injuries. Most Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries result from an extreme force on the lateral side of the person’s knee causing a valgus force which pushes the knee inward (Kisner & Colby, 2012, pp. 802-803). This injury to the side of the knee can also cause a “Terrible Triad” injury which also injures both the medial meniscus and the medial collateral ligament (Kisner & Colby, 2012, p. 803). Our textbook further states that “the most common noncontact mechanism is a rotational mechanism in which the tibia is externally rotated on the planted foot….this mechanism can account for as many as 78% of all ACL injuries” (Kisner & Colby, 2012, p. 803). If the person does not seek medical help with this injury they are susceptible to also injuring the remaining support ligaments as well. Patients usually present with joint effusion; possibly 25 degrees of flexion, joint swelling if blood vessels are involved, limited ROM, stress pain and instability along with quads avoidance gait patterns (Kisner & Colby, 2011, p. 208)
Non-contact ACL tears are more common in sports that require jumping and pivoting. (Washington, 2009, pg. 1)
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a ligament that can be found in the knee. The ACL attaches two of three bones that link to form the knee joint. These bones are the tibia, which is the larger bone in the calf area, and the femur, which is the bone found in the thigh. The third, non-connected bone is the patella, which is the kneecap that offers protection to the overall area. The knee joint houses four primary ligaments, which are separated into the following two groups. The collateral ligaments, which consist of the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL), can be found toward the left and right of the patella. Collateral ligaments regulate sideways movements along with bracing for atypical
Introduction: The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury occurs not only in the students and the athletes during sports but also in middle-age and the elderly during recreation activities. The patients who have high activity level undergo ACL reconstruction surgery, even if middle-age and the elderly. The recovery of muscle strength on the quadriceps following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery is influenced from ages, a kind of graft, rehabilitation, and others factors. The outcomes of ACL reconstruction in these patients are controversial although it is considered that the recovery of the postoperative muscular strength is poor in aged patients.
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,
The following is a review of literature pertaining to the anterior cruciate ligament, ACL, reconstruction and the rehabilitation used for it. First, an overview of the anatomy and physiology of the anterior cruciate ligament, ACL, will be given. The process by which the ACL is the ACL injury is managed through reconstruction, repair, and rehabilitation will be seen from previous literature. There are two types of exercises types that will be focused on and that is closed kinetic chain exercises, open kinetic chain exercises, and using the two in combination.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are one of the most common sports injuries in Sweden. This type of injury may sometimes require ACL reconstructive surgery which has been increasingly more prevalent in the world of sports. This surgery takes a long time to heal and it is often a 6-12 month waiting period for the athlete to return to sports participation. Due to the fact that football places heavy demand on the knee joints, it is no surprise that there are so many ACL injuries in athletes that participate in this sport. One strength of the article would be the measures that would yield a successful ACL reconstructive surgery, and the weakness would be the assessment of the return of the athlete to the competitive level