In recent years, injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in females has outnumbered that of those injured in male athletes. This issue has interested many atheletes, coaches, and trainers. Because of this interest, the Journal of Athletic Training (JAT) chose to do a survey of injuries to the ACL in comparing with male athletes to female athletes.
In Order to do the survey, the JAT sent a retrospective survey to certified athletic trainers (ATCs) at 22 different Wisconsin colleges and universities. The survey asked ATCs to list the number of injuries to the ACL per year for the past 5 years during the basketball season. For each ACL injury, the survey asked for the following information:
1. Was the injured athlete male or female?
2. Was the right or left knee injured?
3. Was the athlete right- or left-handed dominant?
4. What time of the season did the injury occur: early (October and November), middle (December and January), or late (February and March)?
5. Was the mechanism of injury contact or noncontact?
6. Was surgical reconstruction required?
7. Did the injury occur during practice or a game?
Of the 22 surveys mailed, 17 (77%) were returned. Of these, only 14 (64%) were used because 3 had incomplete data, due to either an uncertain ACL injury history or because the institution did not have a team during the time period surveyed.
The result of the survey showed that there were 13 ACL injuries for 621 male athletes involved and 26 ACL injuries for 545 female athletes involved in the survey. That is a 2.1% injury rate in the male athletes surveyed and a 4.8% injury rate in the female athletes involved.
The survey also showed that a large majority of ACL injuries were caused by a noncontact mechanism for both male and female. Most of the injuries to the ACL were caused in the early and middle portions of the season, and the number of injuries in games and practices remained fairly close.