The college basketball season is coming to a close and on the women’s side of the sport, devastating injuries have unfortunately sent players and their teams home early. These types of injuries are common risk of the game, but Dustin Volkmer, MD with Avera Orthopedics explains what is being done to address the rising number of ACL injuries among female athletes.
How does someone tear their ACL? What is the main cause?
There are two main mechanisms. One is contact and the other is non-contact. The majority of these tears are actually non-contact injuries, especially in the female athlete population. The mechanism for that is typically a sudden pivoting or deceleration type maneuver. So imagine an athlete running, coming to a complete stop very suddenly and pivoting at the same time to change direction. That's the classic ACL injury mechanism. That mechanism typically puts the knee in a position where it's buckling in or what we call valgus, pivoting through the knee. All that puts strain on the ACL itself. And occasionally it can be more than the ACL can actually handle strength-wise, so it tears and gives out.
Are female athletes more at risk of an ACL tear?
Studies have definitely shown it's much more common in the female athletes. There's a number of factors that go into that. There are some anatomic factors where females tend to have wider hips and narrower knees. We call that the Q angle. So that puts more of an angle at the knee and puts more strain on the ACL. Females also tend to have narrower ACLs themselves because they have a narrow notch or anatomy to the knee and develop narrower ligaments. There's also risk factors such as studies have shown that during certain phases in the menstrual cycle, females are more likely to tear their ACL. So there's a number of hormonal and biomechanical factors that all increase the risk in the female population.
What can be done to help prevent this type of injury in an athlete?
The most useful prevention strategy we have now is ACL prevention programs that are really focused on neuromuscular training and development. So we work with the athletes, males and females. So we work on proper landing mechanics, proper twisting or pivoting activity mechanics. So to build up strength around the knee to the core, the hip, the core muscle, we know actually contributes stability. So we're working on more strength, coordination, proper mechanics to the knee with those twisting, pivoting, jumping activities. And those have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of ACL tears. The biggest thing is just neuromuscular training to have more coordination and protect the knee in those awkward positions.
Does Avera have an ACL Prevention Program?
Within the new Avera Female Sports Medicine program that we've started within the last year, one of the key focuses or tenets is an ACL Prevention Program. We've actually had it with Avera for quite some time, but we're really trying to focus it and individualize it to our female athletes. So we have a very specific program several weeks long, and our athletic trainers and physical therapists are especially trained to do this. They'll take the athletes through phases of the protocol and rehab training timeline to ensure they're making appropriate progress. And really, again, it's training them to use proper activities in their sports activities going forward.
The Avera Female Sports Medicine Program is specialized and designed for women of all ages who are athletes or live active lifestyles. Request a consultation or learn more.
