Women 's Higher Rate Of Anterior Cruciate Ligament

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

Dr. Boden of the Orthopedic Center in Rockville states, “Young women are two to eight times more likely than their male counterparts to injure their ACL.” Although there are some factors that put others at a higher risk of tearing their ACL, like this gender one, ACL tears are common and can happen

There have been higher incidences of serious knee injuries among female sports, especially those that include jumping and pivoting. In particular, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury rates are more commonly found in female sports. Previous research has shown ACL injuries are primarily due to noncontact mechanisms that include sudden deceleration, landing, and pivoting maneuvers (Mihata, Beutler, & Boden, 2006; Yu & Garrett, 2007). High-risk sports such as basketball and soccer expose athletes to these potential injuring forces. Despite the many similarities between male and female sports, females often have a higher rate of ACL injures (Mihata et al., 2006).

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

Because of their genders, male and Female athletes have different injuries. Many injuries differ according to the athletes gender, furthermore there are numerous type of injuries in sports today. “Specific to body

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) -injury is arguably the most common serious knee injury related to sports participation. Approximately 5000 individuals suffer an ACL injury in Sweden every year (Lohmander 2007). Individuals with a history of injury to their anterior cruciate ligament or menisci were shown to develop knee OA 10 to 20 years post injury (Lohmander, 2007).

Female participation in competitive athletics has increased significantly in recent years. Compared to their male counterparts, they are at a 2 to 10 times greater risk for ACL injury (Edward et al, 2015, p. 368) There are two main mechanisms for an ACL injury: Contact, and non-contact. 70% of all reported ACL injuries are non-contact in nature, whereas the remaining 30% involve contact from an outside force such as an opposing player, a goalpost, or another object on the field or court (Silvers, 2009, p.83).

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.

The most common ligamentous injury to the knee is injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) (Teske 2010), and it is the second most common injury in the lower extremity. It has become so common of an injury that 1 in 3000 individuals in the United States will be affected with an ACL tear (Micheo 2010) and there are 200,000 new cases per year (Wilk 2012). It is most commonly seen in people 15-30 years of age (Teske 2010). It is also more common in females than males (Fayad 2003, Teske 2010, Bowerman 2006). This is due to increased joint laxity in post-pubescent females compared to post-pubescent males (Bowerman 2006) and differences in muscle activation. Males tend to have a more balanced quadriceps to hamstrings ratio

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

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries comprise some of the highest incidents in athletic injuries, comprising up to a total of 3-5% (1) with nearly 70% coming from non-contact mechanisms. (2,3) Moreover, these injuries can lead to loss of time on the field in around 88% of the time (1). There is a substantial difference in gender as well, with female athletes being of higher risk to sustain an ACL injury. (4, 5, 6) Overall, ACL injuries can lead to early sport terminaton in athletes as well as serious disabilities in the non-athletic population (7).(Siegel’s anatomy, physiology, and pathol….(29))

Injury of the ACL is now the most common ligamentous injury of the knee and accounts for about 30 injuries per 100,000 of the population (Irrgang, 1996). Over time it became apparent that multiple variables act in combination to influence ACL injury risk(Wojtys, 2003). Risk

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

Our study proposes to examine the effects of a training program on high school female soccer athletes in regards to their risk for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear using surrogate markers. A randomized control trial will be employed on eligible female soccer athletes that are age fourteen to eighteen taken from two different schools. We will be using a convenience sample with one school being the control group and the other being the experimental group having a total of 56 participants after accounting for attrition. A seven question screener survey was created for this experiment to help screen out possible confounders. Data will be gathered by careful measuring of the exercises performed. More specifically, weight increase, range of motion increase, and repetitions performed. A proportion test will be used to analyze the data. The purpose of this study is to determine if, at the high school level, a specialized exercise program will help decrease the chance of ACL tears through strengthening the hamstrings.

Ankle injuries are on the most common injuries that most athletes have to deal with throughout their playing career, some research has shown that an ankle sprain is seven times more like to occur than other injuries. With this being said a lot of coaches require their athletes to either tape or have a brace on the ankle to prevent the injury from occurring in the first place, however evidence has shown that the use of an ankle brace does not always prevent the injury from happening. So the question becomes does the brace impair the athlete to perform at their highest level. In this study they took ten healthy D-3 male athletes, and ten female athletes. They used video analysis to record the kinematics of the lower extremities during a countermovement