ACL Injuries—The Gender Bias: Research Retreat III, April 2006, Lexington, KY

Mary Lloyd Ireland, Saori Hanaki, Irene S. Davis

DOI: 10.2519/jospt.2007.0301

This was the third research retreat focused on gender bias in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. The first 2 took place in Lexington, KY in April of 2001 and 2003. The purpose of this third retreat was to continue to examine the factors thought to be associated with gender bias in ACL injuries. In addition, we sought to revisit and update the consensus statement from 2003. A call for abstracts for the retreat was announced in the summer of 2005. All received abstracts were then peer-reviewed for scientific merit and relevance to the retreat topic. 

There was a 50% increase in the number of abstract submissions this year. In the end, 33 abstracts were accepted. These were grouped into sessions addressing structural, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and hormonal factors that may influence the gender bias in ACL injury in­cidence. It was interesting to note that the majority of abstracts submitted were in the area of neuromuscular and biomechanical factors, with only a few in the ar­eas of structural and hormonal factors. This suggests a trend in the research focus towards the more modifiable factors.  

The retreat was cohosted by Kentucky Sports Medicine and Drayer Physical Therapy Institute and sponsored by DonJoy, Aircast, Bluegrass Bracing, and Smith and Nephew. To accommodate the increase in number of high-quality abstracts, the meeting was ex­tended to 2 full days. The retreat was attended by both clinicians and scientists with a common interest in the ACL injury gender bias. The 60-plus participants in­cluded registrants from across the United States as well as Canada and Australia. As with the previous retreats, the group consisted of physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, and scientists in the areas of biome­chanics, motor control, and neuromuscular function. Thirty percent of the participants in the 2006 retreat were participants in a previous retreat as well. 

The for­mat of the meeting included 1 keynote presentation per day, along with 15-minute podium presentations made by some of the participants. The keynote presenters were chosen for their scientific contribution to the un­derstanding of factors associated with the gender bias seen in the incidence of ACL injuries. Ton van den Bo­gert, PhD, from the Department of Biomedical Engi­neering at the Cleveland Clinic gave the first keynote titled "ACL Injuries: Do We Know the Mechanisms?" The second keynote presenter was William Garrett, MD, PhD, from the Department of Orthopedics at Duke University, whose talk was titled "Anterior Cruciate Lig­ament Injury Mechanisms and Risk Factors." Following all of the presentations, a consensus development ses­sion was held. In the pages of this supplement, you will find the consensus statement and an abstract on each of the 33 presentations made at the conference, organized by the topics listed above. 

J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2007;37(2):A1-A32. doi:10.2519/jospt.2007.0301

KEY WORDS: anterior cruciate ligament, ACL injuries, gender 

This third research retreat focused on gender bias in anterior cruciate ligament injuries updates previous concensus statements about biomechanical, neuromuscular, structural, and hormonal factors and intervention programs associated with this bias in ACL injuries.

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