Injury Prevention: ACL Tear and Concussion


Injury prevention programs are an essential factor in the subject of performance enhancement. Over recent years both knee injury and concussion have been two leading sports related injuries. The following is discussion on why knee injury prevention and concussion prevention programs should be implemented by coaches in all athletic departments.

            “Effectiveness of Knee Injury and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear Prevention Program A Meta-Analysis” is a research, by Donnell-Fink et al. (2015), that examined twenty-four studies in order to find the effects that neuromuscular and proprioceptive training programs had on preventing ACL and other knee injuries. According to the study, between ten to twenty-five percent of all sports related injuries are knee injuries, women being more prone to knee injury than men. This is equivalent to 250,000 ACL injuries in the United States each year leading to 80,000 reconstruction surgeries per year. The knee-injury prevention programs, included in this study, were designed to reduce landing force, as well as, improve adduction and abduction movement. The types of exercises included in the program are stretching, strengthening and balance exercise. Research found that neuromuscular and proprioceptive training reduced the risk of knee injury by almost twenty-seven percent and ACL injuries by fifty-one percent. (Dontell-Fink et al. 2015)

            According to a study by Caswell et al (2014), a smaller neck to head ratio can be a leading cause to concussion in adolescents. The study suggests that because adolescents have smaller neck-head circumference than adults, they are at a greater risk for a concussion. Study has proven that increasing neck strength, as a risk reduction strategy for concussion, increases head-neck stabilization which reduces the force of a blow to the head. Head-neck stabilization programs increase the anticipation of collision allowing adolescent athletes to brace for impact. The type of exercises included in head-neck stabilization programs comprised of neck flexion, neck extension, lateral flexion, and shoulder shrugs. Each exercise is performed for three sets of fifteen repetition, three days per week for ten weeks. (Caswell et al. 2014)

            In summary, research suggest that neuromuscular-proprioceptive knee injury prevention program should be implemented by coaches of all athletic departments as part of their injury prevention program. Further, head-neck strengthening programs should also be implemented in order to reduce the risk of concussion in adolescent athlete’s.

Reference:

Caswell, S. V., York, M., Ambegaonkar, J. P., Caswell, A. M., Cortes, N., & Turner, T. (2014). Neck Strengthening Recommendations for Concussion Risk Reduction in Youth Sport. International Journal Of Athletic Therapy & Training, 19(6), 22-27.

Donnell-Fink, L. A., Klara, K., Collins, J. E., Yang, H. Y., Goczalk, M. G., Katz, J. N., & Losina, E. (2015). Effectiveness of Knee Injury and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear Prevention Programs: A Meta-Analysis. Doi:10.1371/Journal.Pone.0144063, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144063


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Effects of Physiotherapy on the ROM of Rotary Cuff Repair

    Introduction             Rotator cuff injuries (RCI) are those that have a direct impact on shoulder range of motion (ROM) (Houck et al. 2017). Individuals with rotator cuff related injuries have trouble with abduction and flexion of the shoulder (Houck et al. 2017). RCI can be divided into two categories; partial and complete tears (Zhang et al. 2017). In a partial tear the tear is either on the synovial-side or bursal-side (Zhang et al. 2017). Complete tears can be separated into transverse or longitudinal tears (Zhang et al. 2017). Pain can result from a shoulder abduction of 70-120 degrees. If left untreated RCI can reduce the overall quality of one’s life.             There remains a debate of which rehabilitative method works best at improving overall range of motion after arthroscopic repair. The ever-growing cost in medical expenses...
Read more

Fibromyalgia: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Fibromyalgia is a disease that causes widespread pain and sensitivity in the muscles. FM causes reduced strength in individuals diagnosed with this disease. Strength training has been proven to offset the symptoms of FM and help increase the strength in individuals who suffer from the disease. According to a study by Larson and Palstam (2015), progressive strength exercise can help to improve muscle function and reduce pain in women with FM. Long term strength training and exercise will help individuals with FM to maintain these positive effects. Larson and Palstam (2015) suggests that individuals with FM exercise twice a week for fifteen weeks. In the first two week of working with clients with fibromyalgia I would have them perform 1-2 sets of 15 reps of each exercise. Weeks three to five will include 10- 12 repetitions in 1-2 sets. The final six to eight weeks will include 5-8 reps in 1-2 sets (Larson and Palstam 2015). Exercises will include: ·  ...
Read more

Performance Enhancement Drugs: EPO

According to WebMD (n.a.), erythropoietin (EPO) is a hormone that is produced by the kidneys which helps to regulate the production of red blood cells (WebMD). In athletics, this hormone is injected in order to increase blood hemoglobin which in theory increases the athletes VO2 max (Hardman, Brouwer, Connes, Kuipers, Baskurt 2014). With an increased VO2 Max the athlete is able to, theoretically, increase stamina and enhance their performance in long distance events (WebMD). EPO is having also been used by clinical physicians in order to increase the number of red blood cells in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (Dimyati, Yusuf, Benny, Maman, Ahmad 2015). According to research, twenty- five percent of cancer patients who received 21 days of chemotherapy developed anemia (Dimyati, Yusuf, Benny, Maman, Ahmad 2015). Anemia is a condition in which the patient develops a lower count of red blood cells (Dimyati, Yusuf, Benny, Maman, Ahmad 2015). Anemia in ...
Read more