PVCC Free Fitness Information: Understanding and Preventing ACL Injuries

Understanding and Preventing ACL Injuries

It is estimated that there are about 100,000 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries every year in the United States [11,5,3]. ACL injuries are debilitating, expensive and often have “season-ending” implications. ACL injuries are most common in sports that contain the movements of: running, jumping, landing, cutting, and pivoting such as: soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, and skiing. Female athletes that participate in these high risk sports have a 4 - 6 times greater incident of injury than do males [2,1,8,9,6,7], with high school females having a 10 times greater rate of injury [6]. Approximately 70% of all ACL injuries are non-contact related [4,6]. Most of these injuries occur during “sharp deceleration movements or landing maneuvers” with the knee at close to full extension (straight leg, little knee bend) [6,7]. Since a large number of these injuries are non-contact related, it has been theorized that ACL injuries can be predicted and prevented through structured screening and training programs.

Causes of an ACL injury

Theories for the cause of ACL injuries can be divided into environmental, anatomical, hormonal, and neuromuscular factors [3,6,10]. Environmental risk factors include: playing surface, footwear, weather conditions, and protective equipment. Anatomical risk factors include: Q angle (the angle the thigh makes in relationship to the hip), flat feet, body mass index (ratio of height to weight), ACL size, and ACL geometry.

Hormonal factors include the flocculation of sex hormones in the body. Neuromuscular factors include: the biomechanics and neuromuscular control during athletic movements such as jumping, landing, cutting, and pivoting. Research regarding environmental, anatomical, and hormonal causes remains to be controversial and inconsistent [3,7]. However, there is supportive evidence that neuromuscular training does consistently reduce the risk of ACL injuries [1,3,6,7,10].

However, there is supportive evidence that neuromuscular training does consistently reduce the risk of ACL injuries [1,3,6,7,10]. Additionally, since environmental, anatomical and hormonal factors are often out of our control, it seems logical that placing emphasis on proper biomechanics and neuromuscular training should play an important role in the prevention of ACL injuries.

Last updated: November 11, 2008
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