Incidence of Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury in National Collegiate Athletic Association Female Volleyball Athletes

Abstract

Athletes and clinicians know that volleyball players are at risk for injuring their anterior cruciate ligaments. There are available studies on the incidence of ACL injury rates in basketball and soccer at the college level. Women have been demonstrated to be at substantially higher risk of this injury than men. However, there are no published studies on the incidence of this injury in volleyball. Knowing these injury rates and comparing them to rates in other sports will help assess the need for ACL injury prevention programs in volleyball. PURPOSE: To determine the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injury in female intercollegiate volleyball players, and compare with the known incidence in other sports. METHODS: The National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System database was reviewed for the sport of women's volleyball for data pertaining to anterior cruciate ligament injury for 2002–2004, for Division I, II and III. RESULTS: were obtained from all levels of intercollegiate competition from all schools that report to the Injury Surveillance System (155 schools in '02-'03 & 126 schools in '03-'04). Rates were obtained for both practice and matches. Injury rates were expressed in terms of number of reported injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures. An exposure is one athlete participating in a sport on a given day, whether in practice or match competition. RESULTS: The incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injury in women volleyball players in 2002–2004 was 0.098. (29 injuries in 296,591 exposures.) This is about one third the incidence of this injury in females reported in other sports. The ACL injury rate was 0.26 in matches and 0.03 in practices. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of ACL injury In volleyball was lower than that in other sports, and the rate of this injury was higher during matches than in practice. Perhaps knee injury prevention strategies would be better aimed at other more common injuries in this sport.