Quadriceps tendon tears are rare in professional American football players, and they usually occur from eccentric load on the extensor mechanism. Prodromal symptoms and predisposing factors are usually absent. Even with timely surgical repair, there is a low rate of return to play in regular-season games. There is a trend toward early draft rounds for those who successfully return to play.

Patellar tendon ruptures can occur in otherwise healthy professional football players without antecedent symptoms or predisposing factors. The most common mechanism of injury is eccentric overload. Close attention should be paid to stability examination of the knee given the not uncommon occurrence of concomitant ACL injury. Although this is usually a season-ending injury when it occurs in isolation, acute surgical repair generally produces good functional results and allows for return to play the following season. Players chosen earlier in the draft are more likely to return to play.

No abstract

A link has been established between obesity and osteoarthritis (OA), but the precise relationship has yet to be defined. OA has a multifactorial etiology, and obesity is consistently identified as an independent and modifiable risk factor. The biomechanical relationship is intuitive: increased loads on articular cartilage cause subsequent wear and cartilage breakdown. Less intuitive, and possibly more important, are the systemic effects of obesity on OA. Promising investigations into relationships between lipid metabolism and OA have been rarely reported in the orthopaedic literature. These reports argue that, in obese patients, weight loss may not only help prevent OA but also may be an effective treatment strategy. Orthopaedic surgeons should be aware of the biomechanical and systemic implications of obesity with respect to OA so that patients may be counseled accordingly.

Cross-sectional electronic survey; level V-expert opinion.