New York Times
by Gretchen Reynolds

The goal is to determine whether athletes are physically ready to start competing again. To pass, they usually must have regained about 90 percent of the strength and function in the injured limb that they have in their healthy leg. But little has been known about the long-term outcomes for athletes who pass — or fail — these exams. So, for the new review, which was published in March in Sports Medicine, Kate Webster, a professor of sport, exercise and rehabilitation research at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and her collaborator, Timothy Hewett, the director of the Orthopedic Biomechanics Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, decided to gather the few past studies that had tracked the results of return-to-play testing.

Reach: The New York Times has a daily circulation of nearly 589,000. The New York Times online receives more than 29.8 million unique visitors each month.

Context: A torn ACL is the No. 1 reason women miss time from sports because of injury. And women are three to six times more likely to tear an ACL than men. Understanding the numbers and why women are more likely to tear their ACL is a big part of helping them avoiding injury. You can read more about Timothy Hewett. Ph.D., his research and view a Mayo Clinic Minute on Mayo Clinic News Network.

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Tags: Dr. Timothy Hewett, knee injuries, New York Times, Sports Medicine, torn ACL, Uncategorized