Place impacts ACL tear danger for NFL gamers

National Football League athletes who play extensive receiver or tight finish could have a better danger of struggling an damage to their anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in line with a brand new examine from.

A tear within the ACL is a big and painful knee damage. Treatment sometimes requires surgical procedure and a minimum of 9 months of restoration, and even then, some gamers by no means return to the sphere.

“An ACL tear can have major physical, mental, and economic impacts to the player,” examine creator Clayton Nuelle of the University of Missouri says.

“These are significant injuries that require prolonged rehabilitation, so it’s important to determine risk factors and identify any ways to potentially prevent future injury.”

Wide receivers and tight ends usually carry out speedy change of route actions and are concerned in high-speed tackles and collisions, which doubtless will increase the danger for ACL damage.

“The ACL helps stabilize and prevent excessive rotation within the knee,” Nuelle says. “A tear can occur when the knee is bent awkwardly during a tackle, or during ‘non-contact’ movements, when the athlete plants and pushes off or pivots, putting the ligament under severe stress.”

The examine additionally examined different elements that would contribute to an ACL damage, 520 tears over a ten-year interval within the National Football League (NFL), from the 2012-13 season to the 2022-23 season. 245 tears (47%) have been brought on by a contact damage mechanism, which suggests the participant had bodily contact with one other particular person or object. A 3rd of tears have been brought on by non-contact mechanisms, like touchdown from a bounce.

Despite previous analysis concluding in any other case, this examine didn’t discover any important variations in ACL tears sustained on pure grass in comparison with synthetic turf. Turf is often extra inflexible than grass, which might trigger stress on the physique’s joints and improve the possibility of damage. This discovering could also be an indication of change.

“Older studies found a higher incidence of injuries on artificial turf, when it was lower quality,” Nuelle says.

“Since then, the quality, structure, and composition of turf fields has improved, which may explain why this current study did not find a meaningful difference. Future research should continue to examine various injury rates, patterns, and the overall safety profile.”

The analysis additionally discovered that an ACL tear was extra more likely to occur firstly of the soccer season and through a sport versus a apply, with 291 tears occurring earlier than week 9 and solely 168 tears sustained throughout apply, in comparison with 352 whereas in-game.

Clayton Nuelle is an orthopaedic surgeon and sports activities medication physician on the University of Missouri Health Care, and an affiliate professor of orthopaedic surgical procedure on the Mizzou School of Medicine. He additionally serves as the pinnacle group physician for Mizzou Athletics and straight takes care of the Mizzou soccer, soccer, swimming, and diving and tennis groups.

The examine seems within the Journal of Knee Surgery.

Source: University of Missouri