Women
and knee injuries: a virtual epidemic
by Dr. Monte Hunter
Over the past decade, female participation in high school, college and professional sports has increased dramatically, leading to a epidemic of serious ACL injuries for female athletes. The ACL is one of four main knee ligaments that provide stability during activity.
Female athletes are four to six times more likely to sustain a serious knee injury than male athletes at the same level in the same sport. Reports have estimated that one in 10 female college athletes suffers a serious knee injury annually, resulting in about 15,000 injuries. One in 60 female high school varsity sports participants is injured, accounting for 40,000 serious knee injuries each year. These numbers do not include the hundreds, or even thousands, of knee injuries sustained by females participating in club, recreational or extreme sports for which no reporting system is in place.
Approximately 70 percent of ACL injuries are non-contact injuries, occurring when a player slows down, changes direction, stops abruptly, cuts, pivots or lands from a jump. Female athletes most often injure their ACLs when they come to an abrupt stop or land from a jump. A major factor is biomechanics – how a woman uses her leg muscles and feet when landing.
Bracing has not proven effective in preventing these injuries. However, training techniques can reduce the incidence of serious knee injuries by 50 percent. Training should focus on teaching female athletes better jumping and landing techniques, muscle strengthening, better balance and muscle firing or contracting. For best results, female athletes should focus on this training at least once a week for four to six weeks during the preseason.
While surgical techniques can return an athlete to the previous level of play in 90 percent of cases, ACL injuries can be not only season-ending and career-changing, but life-changing. All athletes, especially women, should focus on preventive and seek help from a qualified sports medicine center if needed.
― Dr. Hunter is an orthopaedic surgeon at the MCG Sports Medicine Center