Common injuries in athletes' knee: experience of a specialized center.

OBJECTIVE

The present cross-sectional study aims to identify the most common knee injuries in athletes cared at a Specialized Outpatient Clinics.

METHOD: Analysis of patients cared at the Knee Outpatient Clinics of a Sports Trauma Center, divided by gender, age and diagnosed injury.

RESULTS

Initially 440 patients were divided into 33 types of sports; after excluding the less statistically significant practices, nine sports remained. The most frequently performed sports were football with almost 50% of total patients presenting anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, and road runs with great frequency of meniscal injury. There was no correlation of the disorder with the type of sports performed but a correlation was found with patient's age/gender.

CONCLUSION

The complete ACL rupture was the most common injury found in football, basketball and volleyball players, followed by meniscal injury in street runners.