Understanding anterior cruciate ligament injury due to drop landing: Effects of different landing techniques and muscles' action at the knee joint

Abstract

Jumping and subsequent landing was found to be one of the most injurious maneuvers to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The ability to predict ACL susceptibility to injury is extremely difficult due to the complex interaction between the lower extremity joints and the surrounding musculoskeletal structure. While muscles play an important role, whether they act to prevent ACL injury during drop landing is still debatable. Our objective is to quantify and compare the muscles recruitment and actions for different drop landing methods, which include single and double leg landing. We hypothesized that: 1.) recruitment of antagonist muscles (Quadriceps force (Q) and Hamstrings force (H)) diffe..