A recent report has been published that looks at the role of leg dominance in ACL injuries. This paper looks at patients who had ACL injuries in soccer to determine if there was a difference between injuries occuring in athletes using their dominant or non-dominant legs.
Recently a paper that has been released that have questioned the effectiveness of ACL injury prevention programs. Our colleague Lindsay Barton has written a response to these papers that we support and feel you should read.
"ACL injury prevention programs for female athletes work and should be use...
Neuromuscular and proprioceptive training programs can decrease noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries; however, they may be difficult to implement within an entire team or the community at large.
The relationships of gender, age and training to the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury are pivotal to developing a comprehensive neuromuscular and proprioceptive training programme to decrease ACL injuries in female athletes. A prophylactic neuromuscular and proprioceptive training programme may have direct benefit in decreasing the number of ACL injuries in female athletes. This research foundation endorses further epidemiological and biomechanical studies to determine the exact mechanism of ACL injury and the most effective intervention for decreasing ACL injuries in this high-risk population.
Anterior cruciate ligament disruption has been problematic in recreational and competitive athletes. These injuries can lead to an inability to perform athletically and initiate degenerative changes at the joint level. Several prevalent studies have indicated that the number of female athletes incurring a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury exceeds that of male counterparts by 2 to 8 times. However, among female athletes, it has not been established whether a neuromuscular and proprioceptive sports-specific training program will consistently reduce the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injuries.
