Knee injuries in women collegiate rugby players.
From The American Journal of Sports Medicine 1997 May-Jun;25(3):360-2
Levy AS, Wetzler MJ, Lewars M, Laughlin W
American Orthopaedic Rugby Football Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
We evaluated the prevalence and patterns of knee injuries in 810 women collegiate
rugby players. Injuries that resulted in players missing at least one game were
recorded and a questionnaire was used to delineate players' rugby and knee injury
history. There were 76 total knee injuries in 58,296 exposures. This resulted in
a 1.3 knee injury rate per 1000 exposures. Twenty-one anterior cruciate ligament
tears were reported for a 0.36 incidence per 1000 exposures. Other injuries
included meniscal tears (25), medical collateral ligament sprains (23), patellar
dislocations (5), and posterior cruciate ligament tears (2). Sixty-one percent
of the medial collateral ligament sprains occurred in rugby forwards and 67% of
anterior cruciate ligament tears occurred in rugby backs. All other injuries
occurred with equal frequency in backs and forwards. This study demonstrates that
knee injury rates in women's collegiate rugby are similar to those reported for
other women's collegiate sports. The overall rate of anterior cruciate ligament
injury in women's rugby, however, is slightly higher than that reported for women
soccer and basketball players.
PMID: 9167817, UI: 97310918
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