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Distribution of injury mechanisms and related factors in ACL-injured female carving skiers

  • Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

While ACL injury mechanisms in skiers using traditional skis are well studied, no study has yet investigated the distribution of injury mechanisms in carving skiers. In traditional skiers, the backward twisting fall seems to be the dominant injury mechanism, especially in female skiers. Female recreational skiers have a threefold higher risk to sustain an ACL injury than male skiers; therefore, it is important to determine if carving skis influence the distribution of injury mechanisms and the related frequencies of ACL injuries in female skiers. We investigated the frequencies of injury mechanisms and related factors in 65 ACL-injured female carving skiers by questionnaire. The forward twisting fall was the most reported ACL injury mechanism with about 51%, followed by the backward twisting fall within 29% of cases. Catching an edge of the ski (59 vs. 24%, P = 0.03) when executing turns (69 vs. 41%, P = 0.053) was a more frequent cause for forward twisting falls than for the other types of falling. While 29% of bindings released during a forward twisting fall, only 3.1% released during the remaining mechanisms. In contrast to traditional skiers, the forward twisting fall was the dominant injury mechanism in female carving skiers with ACL injury.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge support for this study from the Tiroler Wissenschaftsfond (TWF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sportwissenschaften Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Gerhard Ruedl, Kurt Schindelwig, Werner Nachbauer & Martin Burtscher

  2. Medalp sportclinic sölden-imst, Imst, Austria

    Ingrid Linortner & Alois Schranz

  3. Sportsclinic Austria, Innsbruck, Austria

    Christian Fink

  4. Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Gerhard Ruedl

Authors
  1. Gerhard Ruedl
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  2. Ingrid Linortner
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  3. Alois Schranz
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  4. Christian Fink
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  5. Kurt Schindelwig
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  6. Werner Nachbauer
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  7. Martin Burtscher
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Correspondence to Gerhard Ruedl.

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Ruedl, G., Linortner, I., Schranz, A. et al. Distribution of injury mechanisms and related factors in ACL-injured female carving skiers. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 17, 1393–1398 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-009-0860-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-009-0860-7

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