Horizontal jumping biomechanics among elite female handball players with and without anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: an ISU based study

Abstract

BackgroundHandball is a strenuous body-contact team sport that places high loads on the knee joint. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is one of the most devastating injuries that any handball player can suffer, and female athletes are at particular risk due to their intrinsic anatomical, hormonal, neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics. The purpose of this study was to analyze the horizontal jumping biomechanics of female elite handball players with or without previous ACL reconstruction.MethodsTwenty-one female participants (6 with previous ACL reconstruction and 15 uninjured controls) were recruited. Two horizontal hopping tasks were evaluated using inertial sensor unit (ISU)-based technology to assess jumping biomechanics through a direct mechanics-based approach.ResultsThe athletes with previous ACL reconstruction demonstrated a significant (P < 0.05) reduction in the unilateral triple hop for distance compared with the healthy controls. Furthermore, during the initial propulsive phase of the unilateral cross-over hop, the control participants generated significantly (P < 0.05) higher force values in the mediolateral direction (the X axis) with their dominant limb compared with the ACL-reconstructed (ACL-R) limb of previously injured participants.ConclusionsThree-dimensional horizontal jumping biomechanics analyses using ISU-based technologies could provide clinicians with more accurate information regarding the horizontal jumping biomechanical patterns among elite handball female athletes. Furthermore, several mechanical alterations could still be observed among those players who had undergone previous ACL reconstruction, even when several years have passed since the original ACL injury.

Functional and Anthropometrical Screening Test among High Performance Female Football Players: A Descriptive Study with Injury Incidence Analysis, the Basque Female Football Cohort (BFFC) Study

“…Furthermore, as the ISU is placed on the subject s center of mass location at the lumbar spine, no conditioned foot placement is needed, preserving the ecological environment of the player keeping her closer to a real-game situation. Previous research has demonstrated lower mechanical efficiency ratios among male and female [37] handball players with previous ACL reconstruction in comparison to age-, sex-, and competition level-matched controls in horizontal jumping maneuvers.…”

“…Total jump length was recorded (TJL) [35]. Kinetic data was registered using the IMU technology described above and based on a previously validated methodology [37].…”

The use of wearable technology as an assessment tool to identify between-limb differences during functional tasks following ACL reconstruction. A scoping review

“…1). Twelve were removed after the full-text screening (Armitano et al, 2017;Dowling et al, 2011Dowling et al, , 2012Fong et al, 2011;Hohmann et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2018;Reenalda et al, 2018;Setuain et al, 2015bSetuain et al, , 2019aSetuain et al, , 2019bSkvortsov et al, 2020;Tsuruoka et al, 2005). Eleven studies remained and were included in this scoping review (Bailey et al, 2016;Dan et al, 2019;Havens et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2020;Peebles et al, 2019a;Sigward, 2018a, 2018b;Setuain et al, 2015a;Sigward et al, 2016;Thomson et al, 2018;Vervaat et al, 2020).…”

Return to Play and Long-Term Participation Following ACL Reconstruction in Elite Handball Players

“…In particular, side-cutting movements and one-legged landing manoeuvres that are common in handball create a high external knee valgus moment that has been shown to predispose the knee to Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear [3][4][5][6]. Female handball players are more likely to sustain an ACL injury compared to their male counterparts, and the overall rate of ACL injury in handball is 0.86 injuries for female and 0.24 for male players per 1000 hours of exposure [7,8]. ACL injuries are of particular interest because they can be a devastating injury for the health and the career of an athlete.…”