To evaluate the possible relationship between femoral intercondylar notch stenosis and anterior cruciate ligament injuries in pivoting and cutting sports, a 2-year prospective study was performed on intercollegiate athletes at a Division I university. Daily practice times and athlete participation in practices and games were recorded for each sport during the 2-year period. Bilateral intercondylar notch view radiographs were taken of all athletes enrolled in the study. The notch width index, a ratio that measures the width of the anterior outlet of the intercondylar notch divided by the total condylar width at the level of the popliteal groove, was measured for each knee. A total of 213 athletes, representing 415 anterior cruciate ligament-intact knees, were enrolled in the study. There were 7 anterior cruciate ligament tears. Statistical analysis demonstrated a correlation between femoral intercondylar notch stenosis and anterior cruciate ligament injuries. No statistical difference was found between the sex of the athlete and notch width indices or rate of anterior cruciate ligament tears. Athletes with intercondylar notch stenosis appear to be at increased risk for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Over the 6-yr period, a total of 304 athletes (or 21.1%) sustained new or recurrent injuries that required evaluation by the medical team. New injuries alone numbered 145 (incidence rate of 9.9 per 100 athletes). The analysis of injuries showed a higher rate of lower than upper extremity injuries. When evaluated by anatomic regions, back injuries were most common followed by thigh, shoulder, and ankle injuries, respectively. When evaluated by injury type, strains and sprains were most common (71% of all injuries) with fractures and dislocations being rare (1.3% of all injuries). The lower extremity provided the majority of sprain type injuries with 87.5% of ligament sprains coming from the knee and ankle. Injuries with tennis cponyms (i.e., tennis toe, tennis leg, tennis elbow, and tennis shoulder) were rare (0%-5% of all injuries). It would appear that these young elite athletes arc at significant risk of injury. INCIDENCE, PREVALENCE, ELITE, TENNIS TOE, TENNIS LEG, TENNIS ELBOW, TENNIS SHOULDER, TENNIS M any authors have written about tennis injuries, their epidemiology, and treatment (4,9,10,15, 20,21). Others have written about isolated injuries peculiar to tennis; i.e., tennis toe (17), tennis leg (1,7,8), tennis elbow (2,12,18,23,24,25), and tennis shoulder (26). In most studies on elite and elite junior level athletes, isolated regions or specific types of injury are the focus (6,11,25). In contrast, Reece at al. (27) presented the prevalence and etiology of injuries of elite young tennis players at the Australian Institute of Sport, and Winge et al. (30) presented the prevalence and eti

A 4-year prospective review of lost-time injuries and facial lacerations was performed for a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, intercollegiate ice hockey team. The total injury exposure time consisted of 798.5 practice hours and 163 games. There were 16 facial lacerations, with an incidence of 14.9 per 1000 player-game hours and 0.1 per 1000 player-practice hours; both incidences were found to be less than in previous comparable studies where the use of face masks was not mandatory. In addition, there were eight lost-time head and neck injuries that accounted for 6.3% of all lost-time injuries. We found that the mandatory use of face masks in intercollegiate ice hockey results in a reduction in facial lacerations and no increase in overall head and neck injuries.