Click here to email Southwest Orthopaedics
Southwest Orthopaedics
  • Home
  • About Us
  • For Patients
  • For GPs
  • Academic
  • Contact
  • Blog

Prevention of ACL injury in sports

21/3/2018

 
I gave a talk a couple of weeks ago to the Warrnambool Sports Practitioner Group and the Warrnambool Trainers Group, talking about management of ACL injuries. There are lots of points of argument in this area, but I think that the focus has to be on two main questions: does everyone who ruptures their ACL need a reconstruction (no, only patients who have functional instability after a period of rehab, about 60% of cases), and what is the best graft (something biological such as hamstring tendons rather than something artificial like goretex or carbon fibre).

There was a lot of general discussion, and of particular interest is the question is prevention of injury.  Surely better than surgery! Below are a couple of resources that link to neuromuscular coordination training programmes that have been shown to reduce the risk of ACL injury, and which have the secondary benefits of improving balance strength and speed, which are surely of benefit to athletes?

If you are interested in reading further, I have attached the links to the original sites.  The world expert in the area is Lars Engebretsen, from Norway, who is the senior author of the International Olympic Committee statement linked below.

Hopefully our trainers will be able to incorporate these training methods into player preparation, particularly young athletes, and we can stem the tide of ACL injuries and reduce the need for surgery in the longer term.  Meantime, those with ACL injuries should not be bullied into having surgery or into having "the latest thing" in artificial grafts, but should sit down with a knowledgable and experienced surgeon who can discuss the balance of what is truly important to them.

​
Picture
https://www.physio-network.com/acl-injury-prevention-better-cure/
​
Picture
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/07/bjsports-2018-099060

    Author

    Alasdair Sutherland produces Blog updates aimed at patients and general practitioners, to discuss matters of interest and information relating to orthopaedic issues.

    Archives

    May 2024
    March 2024
    July 2022
    June 2022
    December 2020
    October 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Information

About Us
Patient Information
​
For GPs

Our Clinicians

Alasdair Sutherland  


Other Interest

Teaching
Training
Research

ABC Travelling Fellow

Support

Contact


Picture
© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
​Website design by AGS using Weebly.com
Photos from strok_nine, NIAID, n_sapiens