Lessons from establishing a football-specific registry of anterior cruciate ligament injuries - data collection and first epidemiological data

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a common severe type of football injury. Injury prevention measures should be adapted to the respective type of sports and be based on sports-specific strategies. A football-specific ACL registry including prospective ACL injury data of both sexes and at different skill levels is lacking in the literature.

Methods

In Germany, a prospective ‘ACL registry for German Football’ was implemented in the 2014–15 football season. Professional football leagues (1^st to 3^rd national league), semi-professional football leagues (4^th until 6^th leagues) and amateur football leagues (7^th league and below) were monitored regarding the incidence of ACL injuries, risk factors, general treatment and rehabilitation. After the registration of an injury, injured players were sent a standardised questionnaire.

Results

Overall, 1,206 ACL ruptures were registered in the investigated population of more than 56,000 players, resulting in a prevalence of 2.1%. The highest prevalence was found in men’s amateur football (2.7%) as well as in men’s and women’s professional football (2.1% each).

Conclusion

This football-specific ACL registry provides for the first-time longitudinal data about ACL injury patterns and treatment at all football levels. This report describes the considerations for data collection and presents first epidemiological results of 6 years of ACL injury registration.

KEYWORDS:

• Knee injury
• football
• athletic injuries
• sports medicine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Study design

Prospective cohort study, level of evidence: Level II.

Additional information

Funding

We have received funding for this project from the Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG) since the 2016-17 season.