Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries produce significant joint trauma and have been implicated as the inciting event for both short-term and long-term changes within the articular structures of the knee.1–8 Regardless of whether a patient chooses surgical or nonsurgical treatment, ACL injury is associated with the onset of posttraumatic arthritis.9 Consequently, recent researchers have focused on understanding the mechanisms and factors that place individuals at increased risk for sustaining this severe injury. However, variations in study designs and methods have led to conflicting reports regarding these relationships. For example, exclusion criteria used for control participants (eg, combining control participants who have a history of knee pain with those who have normal, pain-free knees) and the approaches used to match case and control participants vary widely among studies. In addition, previous authors have obtained data from the affected knees of ACL-injured patients after the injury. This approach does not take into consideration that the ACL injury itself is capable of producing both short-term and long-term changes in knee-joint geometry.1,5 Furthermore, few investigators have used measurement techniques with established interobserver and intraobserver measurement reliability.10 Finally, many researchers have evaluated men and women as a combined group. However, in light of the disparities that exist between the sexes in ACL injury rates, knee-joint geometry, anatomical alignment, joint laxity, demographic characteristics, and strength, male and female models of injury risk should be considered separately. 11 Verf.-Referat.