It all begins with a popping or ripping sound, and then the knee suddenly buckles.
What follows next is excruciating pain and swelling - all signs of tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, or ACL.
Penn women's basketball player Lauren Pears knows those feelings all too well, having torn an ACL three times. But for her male counterparts, the sensation might not be as familiar.
According to an article last month in Current Health 2, a weekly magazine, women are at least twice as likely to sustain ACL injuries as men.
"In my experience, I have seen a lot more with women than men," Pears said. "I'm not sure why, though."
The Penn Department of Sports Medicine was unable to reveal the specific numbers of Penn athletes who have experienced knee injuries due to privacy issues. Some current Quakers who have injured their ACLs include junior men's basketball player Brian Grandieri, and women's lacrosse players Melissa Lehman and Emily Cochran.
According to Dr. Brian Sennett - chief of sports medicine at the Penn Health System and physician for Penn's athletic teams, there are anatomical, hormonal and neuro-muscular reasons that women experience ACL injuries in higher numbers.
Anatomically, "the notch, which is at the base of the knee, where the ACL is [located], is narrower in women," Sennett said.
This difference restricts knee movements in female athletes. In addition, the female pelvis is wider, making the angle at which the femur meets the tibia greater. These two factors together cause greater stress at the joints.
As for hormones, studies have shown a correlation between the menstrual cycle and injury in females.
In terms of neuro-muscular reasons, women "don't make the adaptive change that men do" during puberty, Sennett said.
The disparity isn't immediately visible at Penn. Sennett did note that in the past several years, he has seen three female basketball players and only two from the men's team tear an ACL.
But looking at a larger set of data reveals a similar pattern.
Men and women's soccer offers the only complete data set available for comparison on the NCAA injury surveillance Web site, which records injury data from a sample set of participating schools.
During the 2004-05 season, there were 127 reported male knee injuries, 58 of which involved a partial or complete tear to a ligament such as the ACL.
As for the women, 180 knee injuries occurred, including 73 affecting ligaments.
This works out to 1.99 knee injuries for every 1000 player appearances for women, and 1.54 for men.
But women don't lead in all categories. Injury reports from the same data show that men have sustained more injuries in areas such as the ankle and shoulder.
According to Sennett, the trend may not hold over an entire athletic program.
"We're a little skewed here in the sense that having a football program, they're probably the ones that tear their ACLs the most," Sennett said.
Because the ACL is a ligament that stabilizes the knee and controls pivoting, certain sports have higher rates of ACL tears than others. However, many injuries occur without contact - 70 percent, according to one study.
"I'd have to say that football, soccer, basketball and skiing are the more common," Sennett said.
After injury, the rehab process typically averages six to 12 months, and Pears has gone through this process three times.
"It gets easier knowing what's coming and how it will feel," Pears said. The recovery process "does a good job of making sure when you're on the court, you're ready."
While there is no way to prevent such an injury, researchers have found that teams who regularly participate in jumping and stretching exercises are at lower risk.
But as women's collegiate sports continue to expand and women play at higher levels, the disparity between men and women's knee injuries may only continue to widen.
The Daily Pennsylvanian
It all begins with a popping or ripping sound, and then the knee suddenly buckles.
What follows next is excruciating pain and swelling - all signs of tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, or ACL.
Penn women's basketball player Lauren Pears knows those feelings all too well, having torn an ACL three times. But for her male counterparts, the sensation might not be as familiar.
According to an article last month in Current Health 2, a weekly magazine, women are at least twice as likely to sustain ACL injuries as men.
"In my experience, I have seen a lot more with women than men," Pears said. "I'm not sure why, though."
The Penn Department of Sports Medicine was unable to reveal the specific numbers of Penn athletes who have experienced knee injuries due to privacy issues. Some current Quakers who have injured their ACLs include junior men's basketball player Brian Grandieri, and women's lacrosse players Melissa Lehman and Emily Cochran.
According to Dr. Brian Sennett - chief of sports medicine at the Penn Health System and physician for Penn's athletic teams, there are anatomical, hormonal and neuro-muscular reasons that women experience ACL injuries in higher numbers.
Anatomically, "the notch, which is at the base of the knee, where the ACL is [located], is narrower in women," Sennett said.
This difference restricts knee movements in female athletes. In addition, the female pelvis is wider, making the angle at which the femur meets the tibia greater. These two factors together cause greater stress at the joints.
As for hormones, studies have shown a correlation between the menstrual cycle and injury in females.
In terms of neuro-muscular reasons, women "don't make the adaptive change that men do" during puberty, Sennett said.
The disparity isn't immediately visible at Penn. Sennett did note that in the past several years, he has seen three female basketball players and only two from the men's team tear an ACL.
But looking at a larger set of data reveals a similar pattern.
Men and women's soccer offers the only complete data set available for comparison on the NCAA injury surveillance Web site, which records injury data from a sample set of participating schools.
During the 2004-05 season, there were 127 reported male knee injuries, 58 of which involved a partial or complete tear to a ligament such as the ACL.
As for the women, 180 knee injuries occurred, including 73 affecting ligaments.
This works out to 1.99 knee injuries for every 1000 player appearances for women, and 1.54 for men.
But women don't lead in all categories. Injury reports from the same data show that men have sustained more injuries in areas such as the ankle and shoulder.
According to Sennett, the trend may not hold over an entire athletic program.
"We're a little skewed here in the sense that having a football program, they're probably the ones that tear their ACLs the most," Sennett said.
Because the ACL is a ligament that stabilizes the knee and controls pivoting, certain sports have higher rates of ACL tears than others. However, many injuries occur without contact - 70 percent, according to one study.
"I'd have to say that football, soccer, basketball and skiing are the more common," Sennett said.
After injury, the rehab process typically averages six to 12 months, and Pears has gone through this process three times.
"It gets easier knowing what's coming and how it will feel," Pears said. The recovery process "does a good job of making sure when you're on the court, you're ready."
While there is no way to prevent such an injury, researchers have found that teams who regularly participate in jumping and stretching exercises are at lower risk.
But as women's collegiate sports continue to expand and women play at higher levels, the disparity between men and women's knee injuries may only continue to widen.
