Bob's ACL WWWBoard On-Line Knee Library |
Click here to return to the subsection Female-Athlete Knee-Injury Incidence and Prevention.
Click here to return to the subsection Knee Biomechanics, Functional Anatomy of ACL.
Click here to return to the subsection Biomechanics, Knee Alignment, and Component Interdependency.
------
Document Title: Hollman-CORR-Aug03.shtml
Article Title: Gender Differences in Surface Rolling and Gliding Kinematics of the Knee
Authors: Hollman, John H. PhD PT; Deusinger, Robert H. PhD PT; Van Dillen, Linda R. PhD PT; Matava, Matthew J. MD
Publication: Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research
Date: August 2003
Volume 413, pages 208-221
Keywords: pediatric ACL reconstruction, epiphyses, growth plates, soft-tissue reconstruction, skeletal immaturity.
(Reference-denoting numbers appear in the same font and point size as the document text. As with all Knee Library documents, this article is provided in full-text form, complete with all figures and tables.)
Comments: This fascinating article will intrigue anyone who is interested in the fundamental research which targets the female-ACL-injury conundrum (i.e. why female athletes are 2-8 times as likely to incur ACL injuries as their male counterparts). Hollman et al. use only a modicum of basic mathematics to express the kinematics of the knee. This study shows that females very clearly have a different knee motion from that of males. This finding is to be expected, given that females are inherently more knock-kneed than males (on account of the childbirth-enabling wider pelvis). It seems safe to say that the female proclivity towards ACL injuries is due to a complex composite of interdependent factors, including not only biomechanics and musculoskeletal anatomy, but also vestibular-system firmware issues, hamstring-strength insufficiency, insufficient knee extension upon jump-landing (and also inwards-angled knees upon jump-landing, a problem which is exacerbated by knockkneedness), hormonal aspects, and other factors.
Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to determine whether knee surface rolling and gliding kinematics differed between genders during open and closed kinetic chain movement conditions. Eleven unimpaired adults (six men and five women) participated in this study. Sagittal plane path of instant center of rotation measurements were obtained with videographic motion analysis and applied to a mathematical knee model from which joint surface rolling and gliding kinematics were obtained. In addition, normalized electromyographic data were collected from subjects' quadriceps and hamstring muscles. During closed kinetic chain knee extension, as the knee approached terminal extension, female participants showed significantly greater relative joint surface gliding than male participants. Female participants also extended the knee in the closed kinetic chain with less relative hamstring activity than males. The relationship between joint surface gliding and relative hamstring activity in females during closed kinetic chain knee extension may explain, in part, the greater incidence of noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury that occurs in females.
To access the full text of this article, please click here.
There is no charge for viewing articles. However, a password is required.
If you do not already have a password, please e-mail Michael Frind at frind@execulink.com for one.
Prior to requesting a password, please make certain you have read the
Site Terms of Use
pertaining to this site.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Copyright Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins Incorporated, August 2003. For details regarding copyright as it applies to this page, please visit the page entitled Site Terms of Use and Aspects of Copyright on this site.
This website was created for the benefit of the world's largest knee-injury community, Bob's ACL WWWBoard (also known as the Kneeboard), accessible to everyone at http://factotem.org.
Documents posted on this site serve merely as a virtual library, and are intended solely for purposes of making access to high-quality peer-reviewed medical-journal articles convenient for all users of the Kneeboard. Knee-injury patients are hereby encouraged to discuss this material with their respective medical teams.
Click here to return to the Main Entrance Page of the Knee Library.
Looking for the Main Index Page of Bob's ACL WWWBoard? Click here!
To find recent postings on Bob's ACL WWWBoard, use the Search Engine.
To find older postings on Bob's ACL WWWBoard, use the On-Line Archive.
Site Terms of Use and Aspects of Copyright