Female ACL Injury

IVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Subject: Female ACL injuries and prevention
Thesis Statement: Female athletes should know that they have a higher risk of tearing their Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL).

Number of Words: 1,573

Concept and Definition As soon as I was told I had to write an investigative report I knew exactly what my topic was going to be. A year ago I tore my ACL playing soccer. I went through reconstructive surgery followed by six months of physical therapy. About three months after I was released from therapy, I re-tore it while playing in a game. Recently, I have become increasingly aware that the incidence of females who tear their ACL is much higher than that of men. Then I became more curious to why females are more
It is well known that female hormones effect the composition and structure of a variety of tissues. Females experience large fluxes of hormone levels including estrogen, progesterone, and sometimes relaxin. Because of such great fluctuations in the hormones of females, researchers have linked rate of ACL injury with levels of estrogen. Unfortunately, administering high doses of hormones to human patients poses great health risks, so most studies are conducted on animals. In one study performed by James Slauterbeck, MD, Vice Chairman of Orthopedics at Texas Tech Medical Center and a team physician for Texas Tech, female rabbits were subjected to different levels of estrogen to test for laxity in the knee joint. The ACL load failure rate was measured to be higher in those rabbits that received the estrogen supplements. This supported the hypothesis that females have increased laxity in their knee joints due to increased estrogen levels. The study further concluded that estrogen might play a factor in weakening the strength of the ACL in women. In addition to estrogen, relaxin, though present in small amounts, may also be a contributing factor to ACL tears in females. This hormone, usually present in high amounts during pregnancy, has been detected in trace amounts in ovulating females. Relaxin serves to create laxity in the hip joints during childbirth, but even small amounts found in knee joints might validate
When researchers tested the precursor to estrogen, estradiol, they found that the rate of collagenous substance decreased when a surplus of estradiol was introduced into the system. While not completely supported, the hypothesis stems from the idea that estrogen and progesterone levels are high during ovulation, therefore creating a greater risk of ACL injury. According to T.E. Hewett, oral contraceptive is a way to regulate hormone levels in females and further suggests that the regulation of the hormones can serve to decrease the occurrence of an ACL tear. Researchers suspect that if an ACL injury is related to hormone flux, the occurrence of injury in females will decrease through the introduction of a consistent level of estrogen and