Can ACL Tears be Restricted to Sports Injuries Alone? A Retrospective Analysis.

Background: The number of people injured following a road traffic accident (RTA) are as high as 2-5 crores around the world every year. The literature from western population suggests that ACL injuries are encountered mostly following high velocity sports injuries in clinical practise. But, in India there are a large group of individuals presenting with ACL injuries following RTAs.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients with ACL injuries presenting to our hospital following RTAs. All the information pertaining to the ligaments injured, vehicular factors, time of the day and environmental factors were recorded. The data was then analysed statistically.

Results: Most injuries occurred in the 31-40 year age group and velocity in the same range. Injuries due to bike skid predominated in our study amounting to 55.9%. Interestingly, very low velocities accidents due to stray dogs accounted to 43.8% and they occur mostly at night.

Conclusion: The number of patients presenting with RTA related ACL injuries in our country are numerous. Hence, we have made an attempt to show that ACL injuries can occur even at low velocity following motor vehicle accidents in contrast to the western population, where sports related injuries are the most common etiology for such mishaps.