Interesting Research Article: Effects of Pubertal Maturation on ACL Forces During a Landing Task in Females

 

Effects of Pubertal Maturation on ACL Forces During a Landing Task in Females


Nasseri et al: American Journal of Sports Medicine Sept 2021

Rates of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture in young people have increased by >70% over the past two decades. Adolescent and young adult females aged 15-19 years are at higher risk of ACL injury as compared with their prepubertal counterparts.

On the basis of the Tanner classification system, 19 pre-, 19 early-/mid-, and 24 late-/postpubertal females performed a standardized drop-land-lateral jump while 3-dimensional body motion, ground-reaction forces, and surface electromyography data were acquired. The data were used in a validated computational model to estimate ACL loading.     

Results:

When compared with pre- and early-/midpubertal females, late-/postpubertal females had significantly higher ACL force. No differences were found between pre- and early-/midpubertal groups in ACL force or its contributors.


Growth of ACL volume plateaus around 10 years of age, before pubertal maturation, meaning that a late-/postpubertal female could have an ACL of similar size to their less mature counterparts. However, late/postpubertal females have higher body mass requiring higher muscle forces to accelerate body mass during dynamic tasks.  This may account for the increase ACL loading seen and be one reason we see an increased risk for ACL injury in 15 to 19 y/os.  

This study further indicates the need for improved methods to assess for risk and programming that is individualized based on the athletes individual assessment. One more reason for objective based assessments like ViPerform AMI with the ability to assess the likelihood of injury in this population.


Link to the article



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