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Study finds rate, effect of ACL injuries similar among male, female elite skiers
Investigators find rate of 5.7 primary ACL injuries per 100 skier-seasons over a 25-year period.
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French researchers found that highly ranked competitive alpine skiers have more ACL injuries than their lower-ranked counterparts and, ironically, longer careers.
Their investigation of ACL injuries in the competitive-skier population also revealed the rate of injury has not declined in the past 25 years and that injury rates were similar for men and women regardless of the style of skiing performed.
“An athlete sustaining an ACL injury will lose at least one or two seasons before recovering [his or her] competitive level,” Nicolas Pujol, MD, told Orthopaedics Today Europe, after he presented these results at the 13th European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA) Congress in Porto, Portugal.
Skiers ranked in the top 30 in the world sustained significantly more primary, bilateral and secondary ACL injuries than lower-ranked athletes, according to Pujol’s abstract.
Injury incidence
Researchers analyzed ACL injuries in this population to evaluate key epidemiologic factors and trends over the past 25 years. They evaluated data for 379 athletes, 191 men, 188 women, on the French national ski team between 1980 and 2005.
Among them, 52 men and 53 women sustained at least one ACL injury for an 8.5 overall ACL injury incidence per 100 skier-seasons. The rate of primary ACL injuries was 5.7 per 100 skier-seasons. Both injury rates remained constant over time, they reported. Among injured skiers, 39% needed at least one additional ACL surgery during their career.
Bilateral injuries
The investigators saw a 19% rate of reinjuring the ACL in the same knee and a 30.5% rate of bilateral injuries.
“The best skiers are probably exposed to increased risks of ACL injury because of higher risks they take during training or races. These skiers, due to their good results, and despite one or two ACL injuries, have a longer career,” Pujol said.
Skiers with ACL injuries had significantly longer careers than non-injured skiers, 7.5 vs. 4.5 years. “An athlete sustaining an ACL injury will lose at least 1 or 2 seasons before recovering his/her competitive level,” he said, making their career longer overall.
“These results show the ACL reconstruction provides a knee as strong as an uninjured knee for the best skiers’ subgroup,” Pujol said.
For more information:
- Nicolas Pujol, MD, can be reached at Ambroise Pare Hospital, Orthopaedic Department, Boulogne Billancourt, France; +33-688484065; e-mail: nicolaspujol1@yahoo.fr.
Reference:
- Pujol N, Chambat P. The incidence of ACL injuries among competitive alpine skiers: A 25-year investigation. Presented at the 13th ESSKA Congress. May 21-24, 2008. Porto, Portugal.