Role of Sports in Etiology and Prognosis of Surgically Treated Acute Knee Ligament Injuries

Abstract

During the period 1975-1981, 48 persons were operated on at Tampere University Central Hospital for an acute knee ligament sports injury. Their mean age was 31.6 years. A total of 40 patients had a postoperative follow-up ranging from 2 to 7 years (average 41 months). The number of operations increased greatly during the observation period: in 1980-1981, 29 operations (60%) were performed. Of all the injuries, 29 (60%) occurred in the winter season (January-March). Cross-country skiing was the cause in nearly half of the cases (23), and 21 of these were spare time sports injuries involving mainly middle-aged women (15). According to the questionnaire and clinical and radiological reexamination, the patients injured in spare time sports did not differ significantly from the patients with no sports injury in respect to the amount, quality, or position of the pathological changes in the knee. However, the whole group of top-level or competitive sportsmen had significantly better healing results than the other patients. Slippery cross-country skis made from glass fibers seem to be dangerous, especially for older female spare time skiers. Competitive sportsmen's better healing results are obviously based on their younger age, better muscular performance, and higher motivation, and better possibilities for rehabilitation.

Long-Term Prognosis of Conservatively Treated Acute Knee Ligament Injuries in Competitive and Spare Time Sportsmen

“…The results of this study are quite similar to the previous study (13). When the spare time sportsmen were compared with the nonsportsmen, no differences were found with respect to subjective, objective, functional, or radiological results, or to thigh muscle strengths.…”

“…The number of patients was, however, quite small. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the reproducibility of those results concerning the acute knee ligament injuries treated conservatively at Tampere University Central Hospital during the same period (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981) as in the previous study (13). The main intention was Table 1 The initial criteria of the study to be met by the accepted patients.…”

“…A worldwide rise has been observed in the number of knee ligament injuries in the past decade (2,3,5,8,11), and the role of sports not only in the etiology (3,7,8,13) but also in the prognosis (13) of these injuries hasbecome of great importance. In a previous study (13) of surgically treated acute knee ligament injuries, the authors noticed that in subjective, clinical, and radiological results the patients injured in spare time sports did not differ significantly from the patients with no sports injury, whereas the top-level or competitive sportsmen's healing results were much better. The number of patients was, however, quite small.…”

Patient assessment of treatment following knee injury.

“…(1) to obtain patients' views of their injury, subsequent treatment and final outcome; (2) to investigate the utility of a typical database system in this field and to discover the problems that might arise in the setting up of a more comprehensive database; (3) to determine the necessity or usefulness of the information that might be held.…”

Myotrophic changes in the thigh following primary suture of the anterior cruciate ligament

“…Other authors have found identical results with regard to patients' satisfaction with different reconstruction techniques [5,[22][23][24][25][26][27]. However, it has not been possible to find evidence of the regeneration of neuromuscular defence mechanisms in any of the usual procedures, and even for autologous patella tendon grafting, which is generally considered to be the "gold standard", there are an increasing number of reports of unsatisfactory long-term results.…”