The knee joint is the area that connects the femur and tibia with the patella acting as a covering for the joint. The ACL has two main purposes. They are to prevent the tibia from coming forward and the second is to provide knee joint stability. Injures to the ACL happen in either through contact or noncontact. Contact is defined as direct contact to the knee by another player or object during the course of a game. 4 Noncontact is defined as an injury sustained without outside contact by another player or object on the field. 4 It has been reported that over 70 % of these injuries are classified as non-contact. (5,7)
ACL injuries are referred to as sprains. They are classified through numbers ranging from one to three. A grade one sprain is a slightly damaged ligament, grade two is a partially torn ligament, and grade three is the most severe a full tear of the ligament. ACL sprains typically happen along with other injuries. ACL sprains generally happen in one of two ways. The first is through contact. This is defined as The other is through noncontact. It has also been reported that ACL sprains have a greater likelihood of occurring in female athletes compared with male counterparts in the same …show more content…
These programs are currently known as Sports metrics and the PEP (Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance) ACL injury prevention program. Those original studies were not perfect by any means. The Hewett study that incorporated the Sports metric program had a few limitations. It would’ve been a stronger study as a randomized control trial and also could’ve done a better job of distributing players among the intervention and control group. Mandelbaum’s study in 2005 also would’ve been stronger evidence as a randomized control trial. Also, the way they reported injuries could have been performed better. I would’ve preferred an athletic trainer report the injuries compared to a questionnaire completed by a player and a form faxed by the