Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Lesions

Abstract

Soccer is currently the most popular sports with over 240 million participants worldwide, and unfortunately, soccer-related knee injuries are very common. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common ligament knee injury during soccer activity and usually causes long layoff from soccer [1]. The annual prevalence of ACL injury is reported to be between 0.5 % and 6.0 % of all female players and between 0.6 % and 8.5 % of all male players, respectively [2]. The frequency of ACL ruptures, whether expressed as an incidence or as an absolute value, is probably higher because the gathering of data on a large number of athletes with different age, gender, or level is actually impossible. Moreover, many other extrinsic factors such as differences of training, climate zones, exposure time to match play, and team level may reduce the statistical power of epidemiological analyses. Despite our little knowledge regarding incidence of ACL injury, soccer has a high rate of injury especially when compared to other types of sports. The etiology of ACL injuries includes a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors, race and gender specific, are not modifiable and include hormonal issues, lower limb alignment, intercondylar notch size, ACL size, and joint laxity. In addition to these, there exist a variety of extrinsic factors such as environmental conditions, equipment, and athlete strength and conditioning.