Kinematic analysis of pressing situations in female collegiate football games: New insight into anterior cruciate ligament injury causation.

The most common events during which anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occur in football are pressing situations. This study aimed to describe the knee and hip joint kinematics during pressing situations in football games to identify kinematic patterns in actions with a high risk for ACL injuries. We filmed 5 female collegiate football matches and identified 66 pressing situations. Five situations with a large distance between the trunk and foot placements in the sagittal plane were analyzed using a model-based image-matching technique. The mean knee flexion angle at initial contact (IC) was 13° (range, 8°-28°) and increased by 11° (95% confidence interval [CI], 3°-14°) at 40 ms after IC. As for knee adduction and rotation angles, the knee positions were close to neutral at IC, and only minor knee angular changes occurred later in the sequences. The mean hip flexion was 25° (range, 8°-43°) at IC and increased by 22° (95% CI, 11°-32°) after 100 ms. The hip was also externally rotated by 7° (range, -19° to 3°) at IC, and gradually rotated internally, reaching 10° of internal rotation (range, -5° to 27°) at 100 ms after IC. This study suggests that the observed knee valgus, internal hip and knee rotation, and static hip flexion previously reported in non-contact ACL injury events are unique to injury situations. In contrast, neither rapid knee valgus nor increased internal rotation was seen in non-injury pressing maneuvers.

The effect of overhead target on the lower limb biomechanics during a vertical drop jump test in elite female athletes.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of an overhead target on the jump height and lower limb biomechanics in all three planes of motion in a vertical drop jump (VDJ) task among elite female handball and football (soccer) players. The hypothesis was that adding an overhead target to the VDJ task improves jump height, increases joint loading, and decreases frontal plane knee control. Five hundred and twenty-three female handball and football players (mean ± SD: 21 ± 4 years, 168 ± 6 cm, 65 ± 8 kg) completed the test. The overhead target increased jumping height by 5.8%. Furthermore, the overhead target led to statistically significant changes in many of the lower limb biomechanical variables examined. However, all the changes in kinematics and kinetics were clinically insignificant, as indicated by the small effect sizes. Strong to moderate positive Spearman's rank correlations were found between the two conditions. Therefore, an overhead target is unlikely to increase the range of responses in biomechanical variables in elite female handball and football athletes.

Knee Control and Jump-Landing Technique in Young Basketball and Floorball Players.

Poor knee alignment is associated with increased loading of the joints, ligaments and tendons, and may increase the risk of injury. The study purpose was to compare differences in knee kinematics between basketball and floorball players during a vertical drop jump (VDJ) task. We wanted to investigate whether basketball players, whose sport includes frequent jump-landings, exhibited better knee control compared with floorball players, whose sport involves less jumping. Complete data was obtained from 173 basketball and 141 floorball players. Peak knee valgus and flexion angles during the VDJ were analyzed by 3D motion analysis.Larger knee valgus angles were observed among basketball players (- 3.2°, 95%CI -4.5 to - 2.0) compared with floorball players (- 0.9°, 95%CI -2.3 to 0.6) (P=0.022). Basketball players landed with a decreased peak knee flexion angle (83.1°, 95%CI 81.4 to 84.8) compared with floorball players (86.5°, 95%CI 84.6 to 88.4) (P=0.016). There were no significant differences in height, weight or BMI between basketball and floorball players. Female athletes exhibited significantly greater valgus angles than males. This study revealed that proper knee control during jump-landing does not seem to develop in young athletes simply by playing the sport, despite the fact that jump-landings occur frequently in practice and games.

A systematic video analysis of 69 injury cases in World Cup alpine skiing.

We have limited insight into how injuries occur in professional ski racing. The aim of this study was to describe the injury situations in World Cup alpine skiing. Injuries reported through the International Ski Federation Injury Surveillance System for three consecutive World Cup seasons (2006-2009) were obtained on video. In total, 69 injuries and 124 runs of matched controls were analysed by five experts to evaluate the skiing situation, skier behavior, as well as piste-related factors. A chi-square test (95% CI, P ≤ 0.05) was used to examine whether there was a difference between course sections regarding where the injury situation occurred. The skier was most frequently turning (n = 55) or landing from a jump (n = 13) at the time of injury. Most of the injuries to the head and upper body (96%) resulted from crashes, while the majority of knee injuries (83%) occurred while the skier was still skiing. Gate contact contributed to 30% of the injuries, while 9% occurred at contact with safety nets/material. Almost half of the injuries (46%) occurred in the final fourth of the course. A particular concern was the high contribution of inappropriate gate contact and the high-energy impacts to the body when crashing.

Non-contact ACL injuries in female athletes: an International Olympic Committee current concepts statement.

The incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury remains high in young athletes. Because female athletes have a much higher incidence of ACL injuries in sports such as basketball and team handball than male athletes, the IOC Medical Commission invited a multidisciplinary group of ACL expert clinicians and scientists to (1) review current evidence including data from the new Scandinavian ACL registries; (2) critically evaluate high-quality studies of injury mechanics; (3) consider the key elements of successful prevention programmes; (4) summarise clinical management including surgery and conservative management; and (5) identify areas for further research. Risk factors for female athletes suffering ACL injury include: (1) being in the preovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle compared with the postovulatory phase; (2) having decreased intercondylar notch width on plain radiography; and (3) developing increased knee abduction moment (a valgus intersegmental torque) during impact on landing. Well-designed injury prevention programmes reduce the risk of ACL for athletes, particularly women. These programmes attempt to alter dynamic loading of the tibiofemoral joint through neuromuscular and proprioceptive training. They emphasise proper landing and cutting techniques. This includes landing softly on the forefoot and rolling back to the rearfoot, engaging knee and hip flexion and, where possible, landing on two feet. Players are trained to avoid excessive dynamic valgus of the knee and to focus on the "knee over toe position" when cutting.

Biomechanical analysis of anterior cruciate ligament injury mechanisms: three-dimensional motion reconstruction from video sequences.

BACKGROUND: Methods for analyzing the mechanisms of injuries in sports from video sequences of injury situations are so far limited to a simple visual inspection, which has shown poor accuracy. PURPOSE: To investigate whether a new model-based image-matching technique could successfully be applied to estimate kinematic characteristics of three typical anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury situations. METHODS: A four-camera basketballvideo, a three-camera European team handball video and a single-camera downhill skiing video were imported into the program Poser 4, where a skeleton model and a model of the surroundings were matched to the background image frame by frame. When the match was considered satisfactory, joint angles as well as velocity and acceleration of the center of mass were calculated using Matlab. RESULTS: In the basketball and handball matchings, the skeleton and surrounding models were successfully matched to the background through all frames in all camera angles. Detailed time courses for joint kinematics and ground reaction force were obtained, while less information could be acquired from the single-view skiing accident. CONCLUSION: The model-based image matching technique can be used to extract kinematic characteristics from videotapes of actual ACL injuries, and may provide valuable information on the mechanisms for ACL injuries in sports.

Understanding injury mechanisms: a key component of preventing injuries in sport.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a growing cause of concern, as these injuries can have serious consequences for the athlete with a greatly increased risk of early osteoarthrosis. Using specific training programmes, it may be possible to reduce the incidence of knee and ankle injuries. However, it is not known which programme components are the key to preventing knee and ankle injuries or how the exercises work to reduce injury risk. Our ability to design specific prevention programmes, whether through training or other preventive measures, is currently limited by an incomplete understanding of the causes of injuries. A multifactorial approach should be used to account for all the factors involved-that is, the internal and external risk factors as well as the inciting event (the injury mechanism). Although such models have been presented previously, we emphasise the need to use a comprehensive model, which accounts for the events leading to the injury situation (playing situation, player and opponent behaviour), as well as to include a description of whole body and joint biomechanics at the time of injury.

Research approaches to describe the mechanisms of injuries in sport: limitations and possibilities.

A number of different methodological approaches have been used to describe the inciting event for sports injuries. These include interviews of injured athletes, analysis of video recordings of actual injuries, clinical studies (clinical findings of joint damage are studied to understand the injury mechanism, mainly through plain radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, arthroscopy, and computed tomography scans), in vivo studies (ligament strain or forces are measured to understand ligament loading patterns), cadaver studies, mathematical modelling and simulation of injury situations, and measurement/estimation from "close to injury" situations. In rare cases, injuries have even occurred during biomechanical experiments. This review describes each research approach and assesses its strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the understanding and prevention of sports injuries.