KEYSTONE, COLO. — Even high-level female athletes show the kind of biomechanics presumed to increase the risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury, and can benefit from retraining, according to studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.
One study subjected female soccer players from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to the kind of biomechanical testing previously done on younger female athletes and showed that, as in their younger peers, these elite athletes flex and recruit the muscles around their knees differently from males.
This type of study was never done before with elite female athletes, said one of the investigators, Michael DiStefano, a certified athletic trainer at the university. In all, 18 female soccer players and 17 male soccer players performed two side-step cutting maneuvers; their trunk and hip kinematics and muscle activation patterns were measured during the tasks.
The females had a significantly more erect posture, rotated their hips more, and had more quadriceps flexion than the males when performing the maneuvers, Mr. DiStefano said. They also bent their knees less.
“Our findings agree with previous research that has focused on the recreational and high-school level athletes,” he said. “So we don't believe these gender differences are influenced by skill level.”
Another study gave specific training exercises to a German professional soccer team, and compared the rates of injury before and after training, finding a highly pronounced decrease. The investigators took 24 female soccer players from FC Bayern Munich and initiated a proprioception-coordination training program during the winter break in the team's 2003–2004 season, and then continued the training thereafter.
Investigators tracked the number of injuries that required medical attention and resulted in the player sitting out at least one practice or game, Karsten Knoblach, M.D., of Hannover (Germany) Medical School, noted in a poster presentation.
There was no reduction in the number of injuries caused by contact. There were 25 injuries caused by contact during the first half of the 2003–2004 season, before the training program began; 26 injuries in the second half of the 2004 season; and 31 contact injuries during the first half of the 2004–2005 season.
Noncontact injuries were reduced, however. The team had 36 minor muscle injuries before the training, and 14 in each of the two half-seasons following training. The team had 12 major muscle injuries in the half-season prior to training, 3 in the first half-season after training, and none in the last half-season.
Most importantly, there were two anterior cruciate ligament ruptures before the training and none afterward.