Immediately After Surgery. OUCH!!
Several Months After Surgery
Did you know? Female soccer athletes are 3 times more likely to tear their ACL than male athletes engaged in a similar amount of activity?
There are roughly 100,000 ACL injuries per year in the United States?
The cost of surgical repair and rehabilitation has been estimated at $17,000 per case, not including future complications?
Female athletes incur ACL tears at a rate of 0.06 to 0.24 injuries per 1,000 hours of exposure. The rate for ACL injuries incurred during games can be as high as 0.90 injuries per 1,000 hours of game time.
There are 4 primary reasons for this:
1. The way different muscles in women contract and react.
2. Anatomical - men and women are slightly different structurally.
3. Hormonal - female endocrinology affects ligaments differently than men.
4. Biomechanical - the positions our knees get into during athletic activity.
A fair amount of research has been conducted in this area. Here's a summary of things we can do to prevent ACL tears:
Prevention Program Components
- Stretching, strengthening, pliometric, and agility exercises. Sport-specific components can be incorporated into the program.
- 10 - 20 minutes, 3 x per week, for 6 weeks in the pre-season
- 10 - 20 minutes, once per week (typically at the beginning of practice), during the season.
- In addition to stretching, strengthening, pliometric, and agility exercises, using correct technique for running, jumping, and cutting maneuvers is helpful.
Graphic: Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation
Let's all be nice to our knees, please...
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