Knee Injuries on the Rise for Female Athletes

September 29, 2015

The Journal-News ran an article featuring Dr. Kremchek about the rise of knee injuries in female athletes, particularity in local high schools. The sub-title of the article may be more important than the title, though: “There are ways to reduce the risk of tearing knee ligaments.”

Knee injuries seem to be on the rise for female athletes especially. Learning the ways to reduce the risk of tearing knee ligaments can be crucial.

“Most people believe that the injury is caused by contact. They think it comes from a situation where the athlete gets hit from the side or is clipped from behind,” said Dr. Timothy Kremchek during an interview for the Journal-News piece. Dr. Kremchek is in his 15th year as the Cincinnati Reds medical director and chief orthopaedic surgeon, but he also provides care to many local high schools.

“And that [contact] can happen, certainly. But most of the time, anterior cruciate ligament injuries are noncontact injuries. They’re from running and twisting quickly, jumping, turning down and jumping onto an unbalanced foot and having your knee jut forward, and that tears your ACL.” Kremchek said that this fast rotation, and an often off-balance landing movement puts basketball as one of the leading sports for participants with ACL injuries. “It can happen in any sport,” Kremchek noted, “but in particular, it can happen in basketball.”