WHAT IS an ACL Injury?
A torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a serious knee injury, especially for athletes. Ligaments are long, rope-like bands that fasten bones together. The ACL helps give the knee its stability. People who get ACL injuries usually play sports that feature swift, abrupt movements such as pivoting, stopping, or turning on a dime. People also can tear an ACL when they do movements they're used to doing all the time, like jumping and landing hard on the feet. If the quadriceps muscles aren't strong enough, a movement a player is used to doing can suddenly put too much pressure on the knee joint and cause the ACL to tear or break apart.
Women are 2 to 10 times more likely than men to tear an ACL.
WHY DOES ACL AFFECT WOMEN ATHLETES MORE THAN MEN?
There are many theories, and over the last two decades, many studies have attempted to answer this simple question. Some have implicated the supposed negative effects of oestrogen (and other hormones associated with menstruation) on ligament strength. Others have suggested that the increased width of a woman's pelvis was responsible for the greater stress on a woman's ACL. More recently, attention has focused on evaluating the manner in which young athletes perform simple tasks such as running and jumping. Recent evidence demonstrates that male and female athletes perform these tasks differently. Some of the things women athletes do differently are:
- Women athletes put greater stress on their knees (and particularly the ACL) as a result of different biomechanics.
- Women’s knees are more toward the midline of the body.
- Women’s knees are less bent when jumping and landing.
Women’s jump and run with the soles of the feet in a more rigid position and directed away from the body's centre of gravity.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
When running and jumping, it is important to bend at the ankles, knees and hips. We now know that, in general, even well-trained female athletes tend to straighten rather than bend their legs-- especially when jumping, and tend to land with a "flat foot" and a "straighter leg" than their male counterparts. Although we aren't yet aware of the reason for this, we do know that this is not desirable, and does predispose to tearing one's ACL. Most athletes and former athletes have heard coaches instruct their charges to assume and to maintain a "good athletic stance"-- meaning, "weight on the balls of your feet, with knees and hips bent, rear-end down and chest up." Scientific evidence now has proven that "coach" was right. Although the scientists and researchers use fancier language, their findings confirm that maintaining this body position or "stance" is proving to be a major factor in preventing or lessening the occurrence of non-contact ACL injuries.
WHY KIMS?
KIMS, one of the best knee treatment specialist hospitals in Hyderabad, understands that women suffer knee cap pain as female muscles are more prone to ACL injury. Our best knee injury specialist doctors in Hyderabad have solutions for your minor knee pains and major injuries, making us one of the best knee injury treatment Hospitals in Hyderabad.