Information about a piece of news titled The risk of ACL injuries in women's soccer is as high as in women's team handball
The risk of ACL injuries in women's soccer is as high as in women's team handball
Intoduction
Four international studies the last two years have shown high incidences of ACL-injuries in women’s elite soccer ranging from 0.6 to 2.2 injuries per 1000 game hours. This is more than seen in elite team handball in Norway (1.6 per 1000 game hours) considered as a high-risk sport for ACL-injuries.
Agnar Tegnander and co-workers from Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center have published data from the Norwegian women’s elite league season 2001 in the journal ”Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy”.
The injury registration revealed the same injury types and locations as in men’s soccer except serious knee injuries. Earlier studies have shown a 2 to 3-fold risk of sustaining an ACL-injury compared to men.
The overall injury incidence was 23.6 per 1000 game hours. Eighty percent of all the injuries were located in the lower extremities with the ankle as the most frequent location (17.2 per 1000 game hours), but there was also a high incidence of head injuries (6.3 per 1000 game hours).
The incidence data between the studies varies, and it could be the different registration protocols that explain this difference. We recommend that injury registration is done continuously also off season, and that registration protocols are made according to the recommendations from Fuller and co-workers.