ACL Tears?!


Question: How are ACL tears caused?
please, nothing to lengthy... this is for my school assignment.


Answers: How are ACL tears caused?
please, nothing to lengthy... this is for my school assignment.

There are two types of ACL tear mechanisms, contact and non-contact injuries.

Contact injuries come from a direct force acting on the knee such as being hit by another player. This can happen in many different ways.

Non-contact injuries are trickier. They happen without an external force. The most common mechanism with a non-contact injury is a plant and pivot movement. The foot is planted and while the tibia is stationary the femus is rotating. However, some injuries can be just bad luck, I once saw a soccer player tear her ACL in mid-air while jumping for a header. As a previous respondant stated, females are more likely to have a non-contact ACL tear but males are more likely to have a contact tear.

There are many theories why females have a high ACL rupture rate (some studies show that female athletes have almost a 10x higher chance of ACL injuries). The most promising theory says that females tend to have a more quad dominant gait and muscular activation pattern with weaker hamstrings. Hamstring strength is really the key to ACL injury prevention as the hamstring muscles mimic the function of the ACL, but in a dynamic way.

Yet another theory focues on the biomechnical differences between males and females. Females do tend to have a higher Q angle, but this is far more important when dealing with patellofemoral dysfunction.

Finally, estrogen tends to make ligaments and other tissues looser. So there has been research showing that females are more likely to tear their ACLs during certain phases of their menstrual cycles. This has lead some physicians to recommend the use of birth control to athletes who may be at a higher risk for a tear,

There are variety of causes of ACL tears...

# Hyperextension of the knee, that is, if the knee is straightened more than 10 degrees beyond its normal fully straightened position, is a very common cause of an ACL tear. This position of the knee forces the lower leg excessively forward in relation to the upper leg.

# Pivoting injuries of the knee with excessive inward turning of the lower leg can also damage the ACL.

Also I have read other research saying that females tend to be more predisposed to ACL tears than boys because of their Q angle, and possible hormonal influence.

Hope this helps





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