Brief summary, from the abstract
In this 2-year cohort study, female soccer players who had ACL reconstruction were far more likely to suffer new knee injuries and to stop playing soccer than knee-healthy teammates. Compared with controls, they had close to a 5-fold higher rate of new ACL injuries and a 2- to 4-fold higher rate of other new knee injuries.
- 117 female soccer players an average of 18.9 months after ACL reconstruction were compared with 119 matched knee-healthy players from the same teams over 2 years.
- New ACL injuries were far more common in the reconstructed group (19 vs 4 per 100 player years; rate ratio 4.82; 95% CI 2.20-10.54; P < .001).
- Other traumatic knee injuries (RR 1.84; 95% CI 1.16-2.93) and nontraumatic knee injuries (RR 3.62; 95% CI 2.11-6.21) were also higher, while non-knee injuries did not differ (RR 0.90; 95% CI 0.65-1.23).
- Over the follow-up, 62% of reconstructed players quit soccer versus 36% of controls (P = .001); this is a level 2 cohort study, not a randomized trial.
Clinically assessing this area? See the knee special tests.