@article{ref1,
title="The Incidence of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries Among Competitive Alpine Skiers: A 25-year Investigation",
journal="American journal of sports medicine",
year="2007",
author="Pujol, Nicolas and Rousseaux-Blanchi, Marie Philippe and Chambat, P.",
volume="35",
number="7",
pages="1070-1074",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Little is known about the evolution of anterior cruciate ligament injury rates among elite alpine skiers. PURPOSE: To evaluate epidemiologic aspects of anterior cruciate ligament injuries among competitive alpine skiers during the last 25 years. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: Data were collected from elite French national teams (379 athletes: 188 women and 191 men) from 1980 to 2005. RESULTS: Fifty-three of the female skiers (28.2%) and 52 of the male skiers (27.2%) sustained at least 1 anterior cruciate ligamentinjury. The overall anterior cruciate ligament injury incidence was 8.5 per 100 skier-seasons. The primary anterior cruciate ligamentinjury rate was 5.7 per 100 skier-seasons. The prevalence of reinjury (same knee) was 19%. The prevalence of a bilateral injury(injury of the other knee) was 30.5%. At least 1 additional anterior cruciate ligament surgery (mean, 2.4 procedures) was requiredfor 39% of the injured athletes. Men and women were similar with regard to primary anterior cruciate ligament injury rate (P = .21),career remaining after the injury (P = .44), andskiingspecialty (P = .5). There were more anterior cruciate ligament injuries (primary,bilateral, reinjuries) among athletes ranking in the world Top 30 (P < .001). Anterior cruciate ligament-injured athletes had a careerlength of 7.5 years, whereas athletes with no anterior cruciate ligament injury had a career of 4.5 years (P < .001). Finally, injuryrates remained constant over time. CONCLUSION: Anterior cruciate ligament injury rates (primary injury, bilateral injury, reinjury) among national competitive alpineskiers are high and have not declined in the last 25 years. Finding a way to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injury in this population is a very important goal.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0363-5465",
doi="10.1177/0363546507301083",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0363546507301083"
}