Work

Prophylactic Knee Bracing in College Football Players Is Associated With a Low Rate of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Purpose To analyze the annual incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college football offensive linemen utilizing prophylactic knee bracing at a single institution from 2002 to 2023. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study on prospectively collected data from an institutional NCAA football injury database. We retrospectively analyzed data between 2002 and 2023 to assess the incidence of ACL injury in NCAA football players, comparing offensive linemen wearing bilateral prophylactic knee braces (PKBs) to the overall injury rates of all positions on the team. Injury rate per 1,000 athlete‐exposures was calculated for each group with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and the difference between groups was calculated with a significance level set at P < .05. Results There was an estimated total of 52,844 offensive linemen athlete‐exposures and 298,320 all‐position athlete‐exposures in the cohort. There were 8 total ACL injuries in offensive linemen wearing bilateral PKBs over a period of 22 years, compared to 58 in all other positions, with an offensive linemen ACL injury rate of 0.151 per 1,000 athlete‐exposures (95% CI, 0.030‐0.273) versus an overall ACL injury rate of 0.194 per 1,000 athlete‐exposures (95% CI, 0.145‐0.243). There was a difference of 0.043 ACL tears per 1,000 athlete‐exposures in favor of the offensive linemen, which did not reach significance ( P = .501). Conclusions In this study over a 22‐year span, we found a low overall incidence of ACL tears among NCAA football offensive linemen wearing bilateral PKBs, with a lower, although not statistically significant, rate of ACL injury compared to players at all positions. Level of Evidence Level III, retrospective comparative study of prospectively collected data.

Source: Arthroscopy Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

DOI: 10.1016/j.asmr.2025.101263

Authors: David Riopelle, Christian Cruz, Russ Romano, Alexander Weber, Seth Gamradt

Institution: University of Southern California

Language: English

Topic: Knee injuries and reconstruction techniques

Subfield: Surgery

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,000