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Nationwide study highlights a second peak in ACL tears for women in their early forties

  • Knee
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture continues to be a focus of research on knee injuries. Despite this, data on the total number of ruptures on a national basis including both reconstructed (ACLR) and non-reconstructed injuries are limited. The purpose of this study was to describe the national incidence of MRI diagnosed ACL ruptures in Iceland and its subsequent rate of operation with regard to sex and age.

Methods

All MRI knee reports taken in Iceland between 2006 and 2011 were gathered to identify ACL ruptures. Software was written to search for phrases relating to ACL rupture. Duplicate records were removed and yearly incidence for sex and age groups was determined. Data from the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration were used identify all those who were operated and to determine the yearly incidence of ACLR. General additive models were used assuming either a Poisson or binomial distribution to model ACL rupture incidence and ACLR rate, respectively.

Results

The average age was 33.9 (95% CI 33.1–34.6; Table 1). The average incidence of ACL tears per year was 75.1 (95% CI 71.3–79.1) per 100,000 person-years. For males the peak incidence was in their early twenties. Females showed two peaks, one in their teens and another in their forties resulting in an older average age at rupture compared to males (35 ± 16 vs 33 ± 13, p = 0.06). The main effects of age and sex and their interaction were significant (p < 0.001). The average incidence of ACLR was 39.4 (95% CI 36.7–42.4) per 100,000 person-years. Those operated were significantly younger than those who were not (27 ± 10 vs 42 ± 15 years, p < 0.001). The main effects of age and the interaction between sex and age were significant (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

This nationwide study indicates that ACL rupture incidence may be higher than previously thought, implying an underestimated impact of the burden of this serious knee injury. The incidence of injury peaked twice in the female population, a result not previously reported. Older persons are less likely to undergo ACLR and, therefore, sex-dependent differences in overall mean age at injury are contrary to previous reports. These data suggest that prevention programs focused solely on young girls should be extended to older women who are returning to sports.

Level of evidence

II.

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Abbreviations

ACL:

Anterior cruciate ligament

ACLR:

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

OA:

Osteoarthritis

GAM:

Generalized additive model

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Vishal Kalia and Dr Vibhuti Kalia for their help in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Research Centre for Movement Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Micah Nicholls & Kristin Briem

  2. Faculty of Medicine, The Centre of Public Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Thor Aspelund

  3. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland

    Thorvaldur Ingvarsson

Authors
  1. Micah Nicholls
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  2. Thor Aspelund
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  3. Thorvaldur Ingvarsson
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  4. Kristin Briem
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Contributions

MN, TI and KB conceived and designed the study, collected the data and classified the reports. MN and TA analysed the data. MN wrote the initial manuscript. All authors contributed in revising the manuscript and gave their final approval of the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Micah Nicholls.

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The Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Nicholls, M., Aspelund, T., Ingvarsson, T. et al. Nationwide study highlights a second peak in ACL tears for women in their early forties. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26, 648–654 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4807-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4807-0

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