Hewett, T. E.; Lindenfeld, T. N.; Riccobene, J. V., and Noyes, F. R. The effect of neuromuscular training on the incidence of knee injury in female athletes. A prospective study. Am J Sports Med. 1999 Nov-1999 Dec 31; 27(6):699-706

Read Abstract Here:the-effect-of-neuromuscular-training-on-the-incidence-of-knee-injury-in-female-athletes-a-prospective-study

Former national high school basketball player of the year, Jamie Walz, knows first hand the benefits of the Cincinnati Sportsmetrics jump training program. On the medical Internet website, WebMD, Walz, a 22-year old shooting guard for Western Kentucky University, credited the Sportsmetrics program for getting her back on the college basketball court after she tore her ACL during a game in 1998.

Dr. Frank Noyes was featured in The Cincinnati Enquirer for his decades of work in solving complex knee problems. “Knees are a very vulnerable part of the body, yet now techniques are offering hope and recovery for people whose knee problems have been written off by doctors. Dr. Frank Noyes and his team of specialists at Cincinnati Sportsmedicine and Orthopaedic Center are often considered the doctors of last resort for many knee problems, including sports injuries, severe arthritis and so-called complicated knees damaged by the ravages of time and previously unsuccessful surgeries,” writes Sue MacDonald, Health Editor for The Cincinnati Enquirer. “A variety of new treatments and approaches are helping doctors save and repair knees in ways never before possible.”

The article outlines his latest operative advances in meniscus and cartilage repair, treatment of complex knee ligament and alignment problems, and preventing serious knee injuries in female athletes. For a copy of the article, please contact the Public Relations office at Cincinnati Sportsmedicine.

The lead article in this month’s The American Journal of Sports Medicine is a comprehensive reliability review of Cincinnati Sportsmedicine’s Cincinnati Knee Rating System. “The Cincinnati Knee Rating System is probably one of the top five significant contributions made by Dr. Frank Noyes to orthopaedics,” explained Sue Barber-Westin, Director of Clinical Studies. “The Knee Rating System allows patients and surgeons to grade the results of knee ligament reconstruction. This study shows that our knee rating system is the only system that has been proven to be reliable and valid from over 40 systems which have been published.”

Cincinnati Sportsmedicine Research and Education Foundation is conducting its fourth study to explore how injuries in female athletes can be prevented. Eighty athletes are currently involved in the testing at Milford and Fairfield High Schools. In an interview today with NBC news local affiliate WLWT-TV, researchers explained that many athletes are unknowingly unprepared physically for competitive play. Researchers hope to find anatomic, functional and neuromuscular factors which identify athletes with a predisposition to injury. The goal is to reach these athletes before competitive sports and offer a training program that might decrease their risk of developing knee injuries.

National interest into Cincinnati Sportsmedicine’s research on preventing serious female knee injuries was heightened by the opening of the Women’s World Cup Soccer, the knee injury sustained by New York Liberty’s Rebecca Lobo and a consensus symposium on this topic sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons early in the month. Two articles appeared in The New York Times; here is an excerpt from the June 15 article: “There is no question that girls today have more opportunity to develop their athletic talents than any previous generation, but the playing field is not level. Until very recently, girls and women made do with shoes, clothing and equipment designed for their brothers…Slowly that’s changed. Medical experts (Frank Noyes, MD and Thomas Lindenfeld, MD) now say that training programs need similar modifications.

“While researchers explore the factors that lead to injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament, … colleagues at the Cincinnati Sportsmedicine and Orthopaedic Center have developed a preseason neuromuscular training program that they believe counteracts the risk. Their research has shown that by strengthening their hamstrings, and to a lesser degree, their quadriceps, and learning how to jump and land in a more crouched position,
female athletes can reduce their knee injuries to a rate comparable to males.”

The Cincinnati Sportsmedicine Research and Education Foundation was named “Sports Business of the Year” at the sixth annual Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Women’s Sports Association. The award is given annually to a local business that does the most to promote girls’ and women’s sports.

“Cincinnati Sportsmedicine has led the way in researching and developing protocols to ensure that female athletes stay well and play well. One concrete example of their commitment came in 1997 when researchers (Frank R. Noyes, MD and Thomas N. Lindenfeld, MD) studied the effects of a training program for female athletes to prevent serious knee injuries. This landmark study found that female athletes can cut their risk. With this information, the Foundation has devoted considerable time to educating coaches locally and nationally about this proven injury prevention program. This study joins a number of other Foundation efforts which have investigated the rate of injury in female athletes, an analysis of the forces at the knee from jumping, the role of hormones in female knee injury and the effects of gender on ACL reconstruction.”

Michelle Andrews, MD accepted the award on behalf of the Foundation from Houston Comet’s MVP Cynthia Cooper, the keynote speaker.

Dr. Thomas Lindenfeld was named Program Chair for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ course on the Shoulder and the Knee: The Athletic Perspective to Treatment, Controversies and Problem Solving. The course will be held in March 1999, in Steamboat Springs, CO. Also selected as faculty members are Frank Noyes, MD and David Butler, Ph.D., Director of the Biomedical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Cincinnati and the Noyes/Giannestras Biomechanics Laboratories.

Thomas N. Lindenfeld, MD addressed over 150 members of the orthopaedic faculty and medical school at Yale University’s Department of Orthopaedics Grand Rounds as an Invited Professor on “Knee Ligament Injury vs. Gender. A Brief History and Current Developments.”

Dr. Lindenfeld is nationally recognized for his research in many areas. He has authored three related studies which explore the incidence of injury and the neuromuscular and hormonal influences surrounding the cause of serious knee injuries in female athletes. All three studies have appeared in the prestigious American Journal of Sports Medicine.