ACL Injuries in the Female Athlete: Causes, Impacts, and Conditioning Programs

This successful book, now in a revised and updated second edition, reviews all aspects of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female athletes, with the focus on complete, noncontact ACL injuries. The opening section discusses anatomy and biomechanics and explains the short- and long-term impacts of complete ACL ruptures, including long-term muscle dysfunction and joint arthritis. Risk factors and possible causes of the higher noncontact ACL injury rates in female athletes compared with male athletes are then discussed in depth. Detailed attention is devoted to neuromuscular training programs and their effectiveness in reducing noncontact ACL injury rates in female athletes, as well as to sports-specific ACL injury prevention and conditioning programs of proven value. Rehabilitation programs after ACL injury and reconstruction that reduce the risk of a future injury are explored, and the concluding section looks at worldwide implementation of neuromuscular ACL injury prevention training and future research directions. The book will be of value to orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, athletic trainers, sports medicine primary care physicians, and strength and conditioning specialists.

Frank R. Noyes, MD is the founder and CEO of the Cincinnati SportsMedicine and Orthopaedic Center and the President and Medical Director of the Noyes Knee Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior to founding the Center, Dr. Noyes was Director of the Sports Medicine Institute and was a Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Noyes has received numerous awards and honors including the Kappa Delta Research Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award from the U.S. Sports Academy, and induction into the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s Hall of Fame. In 2013, he served as President of the Herodicus Society, which is considered the premier group of American, Canadian, and European sports medicine physicians. Dr. Noyes has held numerous editorial board appointments for various leading journals. He has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed orthopaedic journals and textbooks, is the editor of Noyes’ Knee Disorders: Surgery, Rehabilitation, Clinical Outcomes, 1st and 2nd editions, is co-editor of 12 eBooks that discuss a variety of knee and lower limb conditions, and was noted in 2012 to be one of the most frequently cited authors worldwide in the field of arthroscopic surgery and orthopaedics.

Sue D. Barber-Westin, BS, is Director of Clinical & Applied Research at the Cincinnati Sportsmedicine Research and Education Foundation and the Noyes Knee Institute, a position she has held since 1985. Ms Barber-Westin is an exceptionally experienced clinical research professional specialized in the development, implementation, and completion of outcome studies in orthopaedics and sports medicine. Along with Dr. Noyes, she has conducted over 70 clinical research projects involving 7000 patients and volunteer subjects and has published 180 manuscripts in peer-reviewed orthopaedic journals and textbooks. In 2004, Ms. Barber-Westin and Dr. Noyes received the OREF Clinical Research Award, presented jointly by the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Ms. Barber-Westin is the associate editor of Noyes’ Knee Disorders: Surgery, Rehabilitation, Clinical Outcomes, 1st and 2nd editions and co-editor of 12 eBooks that discuss a variety of knee and lower limb conditions.