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Medial Collateral Ligament Knee Sprains in College Football

Brace Wear Preferences and Injury Risk

University of lowa

John W. Powell, PhD, ATC

University of lowa

Walter Smith, MED, ATC

Indiana University

Al Martindale, ATC,R

University of Illinois

Edward Crowley, LPT, ATC

University of lowa

Jeff Monroe, MS, ATC

Michigan State University

Russ Miller, PT, ATC

University of Michigan

John Connolly, PT, ATC

Northwestern University

Billy A. Hill, ATC

Ohio State University

Dennis Miller, MS, ATC, PT

Purdue University

Dennis Helwig, ATC

University of Wisconsin

Jim Marshall, ATC, RPT

University of Minnesota

In this prospective, multiinstitutional analysis of medial collateral ligament sprains in college football players, we categorized 987 previously uninjured study subjects according to frequency of wearing preventive knee braces, studied the patterns by which 47 of 100 injuries occurred to unbraced knees, and identified several ex trinsic, sport-specific risk factors shared for both braced and unbraced knees. The attendance, brace wear choice, position, string, and session of each participant were recorded daily; medial collateral ligament sprains were reported whenever tissue damage was confirmed. Both the likelihood of wearing braces and risk of injury without them was highly dependent on session (games/ practices), position group (line, linebacker/tight end, skill), and string group (players/nonplayers). Subjects wearing braces often faced a high injury risk to their unbraced knees, a finding compatible with the opinion that braces were a necessary evil, best worn when con cern over danger of injury outweighed desire for speed and agility. It is concluded that to avoid misinterpreta tions due to the confounding influence of brace wear selection bias, accurate investigation of daily brace wear patterns is required. Then, before considing the impact of preventive knee braces, a repartitioning of the data base is essential to assure that only similar groups will be compared.

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