Initial ground contact flatfooted or with the hindfoot, knee abduction and increased hip flexion may be risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Background The combined positioning of the trunk and knee in the coronal and sagittal planes during non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury has not been previously reported. Hypothesis During ACL injury female athletes demonstrate greater lateral trunk and knee abduction angles than ACL-injured male athletes and uninjured female athletes. Design Cross-section control-cohort design. Methods Analyses of still captures from 23 coronal (10 female and 7 male ACL-injured players and 6 female controls) or 28 sagittal plane videos performing similar landing and cutting tasks. Significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Results Lateral trunk and knee abduction angles were higher in female compared to male athletes during ACL injury (p ≤ 0.05) and trended toward being greater than female controls (p = 0.16, 0.13, respectively). Female ACL-injured athletes showed less forward trunk lean than female controls (mean (SD) initial contact (IC): 1.6 (9.3)° vs 14.0 (7.3)°, p ≤ 0.01). Conclusion Female athletes landed with greater lateral trunk motion and knee abduction during ACL injury than did male athletes or control females during similar landing and cutting tasks. Clinical relevance Lateral trunk and knee abduction motion are important components of the ACL injury mechanism in female athletes as observed from video evidence of ACL injury.

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Transient bilateral sensory and motor symptoms after trauma, including complete paralysis, have been identified in patients with cervical spinal stenosis. Radiographs of 23 patient athletes with cervical spinal neurapraxia were used for measurement of the cervical spinal canal. Two methods of measurement were used. In the conventional method, sagittal diameter is measured from the posterior surface of the vertebral body to the nearest point of the corresponding laminar line. In the ratio method, the sagittal diameter of the spinal canal is divided by the sagittal diameter of the corresponding vertebral body. Results indicate the ratio method is reliable for determining cervical spinal stenosis and is independent of technical factor variables.