Knee injury rates varied by sex across 5 different sports in the HS and collegiate settings. Female athletes sustained ACL injuries at a higher rate than male athletes at both the HS and collegiate levels in these 5 sports; however, there was not a distinct sex disparity in MCL and meniscal injuries. Future studies should examine the rates of concomitant and recurrent injuries to inform injury prevention and rehabilitation programs.

The purpose of our study was to determine the association between biomechanical outcomes of walking gait (peak vertical ground reaction force [vGRF], vGRF loading rate [vGRF-LR] and knee adduction moment [KAM]) six months following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and biochemical markers of serum type-II collagen turnover (collagen type-II cleavage product to collagen type-II C-propeptide [C2C:CPII]), plasma degenerative enzymes (matrix metalloproteinase-3 [MMP-3]), and a pro-inflammatory cytokine (interleukin-6 [IL-6]). Biochemical markers were evaluated within the first two weeks (6.5±3.8 days) following ACL injury and again six months following ACLR in eighteen participants. All peak biomechanical outcomes were extracted from the first 50% of the stance phase of walking gait during a six-month follow-up exam. Limb symmetry indices (LSI) were used to normalize the biomechanical outcomes in the ACLR limb to that of the contralateral limb (ACLR /contralateral). Bivariate correlations were used to assess associations between biomechanical and biochemical outcomes. Greater plasma MMP-3 concentrations after ACL injury and at the six-month follow-up exam were associated with lesser KAM LSI. Lesser KAM was associated with greater plasma IL-6 at the six-month follow-up exam. Similarly, lesser vGRF-LR LSI was associated with greater plasma MMP-3 concentrations at the six-month follow-up exam. Lesser peak vGRF LSI was associated with higher C2C:CPII after ACL injury, yet this association was not significant after accounting for walking speed. Therefore, lesser biomechanical loading in the ACLR limb, compared to the contralateral limb, six months following ACLR may be related to deleterious joint tissue metabolism that could influence future cartilage breakdown.

Slower walking speed at 6 and 12 months following ACLR may be associated with early proteoglycan density changes in medial femoral compartment cartilage health in the first 12 months following ACLR.

Greater quadriceps MVIC and CAR may provide better energy attenuation during a jump-landing task. Individuals with greater peak vGRF in the ACLR limb possibly require greater spinal-reflex excitability to attenuate greater loading during dynamic movements.

A markerless motion-capture system had the same level of reliability as expert LESS raters, suggesting that an automated system can accurately assess movement. Therefore, clinicians can use the markerless motion-capture system to reliably score the LESS without being limited by the time requirements of manual LESS scoring.