ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT STRAIN DURING STOP-JUMP LANDING: A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Stop-jump landing maneuvers are a particularly common source of injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The objective of this study is to determine which kinematic and kinetic parameters contributed to greater ACL strains during stop-jump landings. A combined in vivo/computational modeling approach was used to simulate stop-jump landing activity. Motion capture data from five human participants performing a non-injurious stop-jump landing were used to compute subject- specific muscle forces and 3D kinematics of the knee. These outputs were subsequently used to simulate the activity on a validated computational model of the knee. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine which variables significantly affected the strain in the ACL. The resulting average peak ACL strain during the activity was 7.9 ± 2.4%. A bivariate correlation study found that there was a strong correlation between ACL strain and the knee range of flexion during the period from ground contact to peak ground reaction force (GRF) time ([Formula: see text] = −0.81, [Formula: see text] = 0.08). Neither the quadriceps force nor the instantaneous knee flexion angle during landing or peak GRF was strongly correlated to ACL strain. The results show that strain in the ACL during stop-jump landing could be reduced by increasing the knee range of flexion over time during the landing phase.