Men have a greater number of knee ligament injuries than women, despite research suggesting that women's knees are more prone to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and surgeries to fix them, according to a Swedish study.
The report, published in the American Journal of Sports medicine, counted the injuries across the entire Swedish population, not just among players of particular sports or in certain regions.
The ACL is the key stabilising ligament in the knee, and is most often injured during sports that involve quick turns or pivoting movements, such as basketball, soccer and skiing. It has been estimated that 80,000 cruciate ligament injuries - the majority of them ACL - take place in the United States every year, with almost half surgically repaired.
"I think the difference is that earlier studies studied at-risk populations," said Richard Nordenvall, of Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden.
"In those studies, women are more prone to get injured. The difference with this study is that we studied the general population." Nordenvall and his colleagues used a nation-wide database of patients to see how many Swedes had knee ligament injuries and how many had surgical repairs between 2002 and 2009.
Overall, 56,659 people in Sweden tore a knee ligament during the study period. The researchers say that works out to an average of 78 tears for every 100,000 Swedish citizens.
Comments
Comments are closed.