Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center

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Information about project titled 'Knee joint kinematics in non-contact ACL injury situations from female team handball and basketball'

Knee joint kinematics in non-contact ACL injury situations from female team handball and basketball

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Project status: Published
Project manager: Tron Krosshaug
Supervisor(s): Roald Bahr
Coworker(s): Hideyuki Koga, Lars Engebretsen, Yosuke Shima, Junji Iwasa, Atsuo Nakamae

Description

Understanding the mechanisms for non-contact ACL injury is a matter of controversy, and several theories have been proposed; principally the quadriceps drawer hypothesis (where the quadriceps muscle generates anterior shear forces on the tibia due to the patellar tendon angle), internal tibial rotation on a relatively straight leg, knee valgus with internal rotation, knee valgus with external rotation (which may involve impingement of the ACL against the intercondylar notch), and tibiofemoral compression loading.

A precise description of the injury mechanism is critical to be able to effectively target intervention programs to prevent ACL injuries. Video analysis of injury tapes is the only method available to extract biomechanical information on the mechanism.

 

The objective of this project is to describe knee joint kinematics in actual ACL injury situations using a model-based image matching technique (MBIM) we have developed.

 

Methods

Ten video sequences with at least two views (angles) of ACL injuries from women's handball (n=7) and basketball (n=3) were analyzed using MBIM based on the animation program Poser. Computer models of the background were modeled and matched to the video image. A skeleton model with 57 degrees of freedom was adapted individually to each of the injured players and matched frame by frame, providing an estimate of the time course of knee joint kinematics and ground reaction forces for the injury sequence.

 

This study will have implications for future rehabilitation and prevention for female non-contact ACL injuries.