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=Epidemiology: ACL Tears in Female Athletes=

Who is effected
We have seen a growing number in the amount of female athletes in high school and college sports as we had the passing of Title IX in 1972. “TheNCAAstatistics have shown that, when compared with male athletes who participate in activities with similar rules and equipment, female athletes are two to eight times more likely to sustain an ACL injury”.

Occurrence
“Female subjects had a roughly 3 times higher incidence of ACL tears in soccer and basketball than male subjects”. In another study, “The IR (incidence rate) of ACL reconstructions was clearly increasing in the female population. The largest increase was in female high school students…”.

Risk Factors
There are many risk factors for going through the pain of an ACL tear, “Environmental factors include those aspects extrinsic to the athlete such as sport, playing surface, weather characteristics, the type of footwear, the shoe to surface interaction”. To an extent these environmental factors can be managed, but those that cannot are anatomical factors. “One of the anatomical factors that is the subject of considerable debate is the morphology of the femoral intercondylar notch, and the relationship between notch width and disruption of the ACL”. Gabos states that having a smaller notch width leads to higher chances of injuring and tearing the ACL. The type of sport that an individual participates in could also lead toward ACL tears, “Seventy percent of ACL injuries occur during athletic participation, and they are most common in sports that require rapid stopping, cutting, and changing direction…”. Sports like soccer and basketball fall into this category perfectly.