Distribution of injury mechanisms and related factors in ACL-injured female carving skiers.

While ACL injury mechanisms in skiers using traditional skis are well studied, no study has yet investigated the distribution of injury mechanisms in carving skiers. In traditional skiers, the backward twisting fall seems to be the dominant injury mechanism, especially in female skiers. Female recreational skiers have a threefold higher risk to sustain an ACL injury than male skiers; therefore, it is important to determine if carving skis influence the distribution of injury mechanisms and the related frequencies of ACL injuries in female skiers. We investigated the frequencies of injury mechanisms and related factors in 65 ACL-injured female carving skiers by questionnaire. The forward twisting fall was the most reported ACL injury mechanism with about 51%, followed by the backward twisting fall within 29% of cases. Catching an edge of the ski (59 vs. 24%, P = 0.03) when executing turns (69 vs. 41%, P = 0.053) was a more frequent cause for forward twisting falls than for the other types of falling. While 29% of bindings released during a forward twisting fall, only 3.1% released during the remaining mechanisms. In contrast to traditional skiers, the forward twisting fall was the dominant injury mechanism in female carving skiers with ACL injury.

Are oral contraceptive use and menstrual cycle phase related to anterior cruciate ligament injury risk in female recreational skiers?

Oral contraceptive use and menstrual cycle phase are suggested to influence the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female athletes. However, only few data are available for recreational sports. Therefore, female recreational skiers with a non-contact ACL injury and age-matched controls completed a self-reported questionnaire relating to menstrual history, oral contraceptive use and previous knee injuries. Menstrual history data were used to group subjects into either preovulatory or postovulatory phases of menstrual cycle. Our findings suggest that oral contraceptive use did not show any protective effect against ACL injuries nor did self-reported previous knee injuries show any association with ACL injury rate in recreational alpine skiing. Analysis of menstrual history data revealed that recreational skiers in the preovulatory phase were significantly more likely to sustain an ACL injury than were skiers in the postovulatory phase.