Information about project titled 'Mechanisms of serious knee injuries in World Cup freestyle skiing - a 3D kinematic analysis based on uncalibrated 2D video recordings'
Mechanisms of serious knee injuries in World Cup freestyle skiing - a 3D kinematic analysis based on uncalibrated 2D video recordings
| Details about the project - category | Details about the project - value |
|---|---|
| Project status: | OnHold |
| Project manager: | Tron Krosshaug |
| Supervisor(s): | Oddvar Hallingstad, Roald Bahr, Lars Engebretsen |
| Coworker(s): | Stig Heir |
Description
Knee injuries in skiing represent a major problem. The rate of serious knee injuries among recreational skiers has increased dramatically during the last two decades despite attempts to improve ski safety equipment and boot-binding-release systems. The long-term results of knee injuries are alarming. Even injuries that heal with a good functional outcome, surgically-treated or not, increase the risk of developing early osteoarthritis.
Several mechanisms involved in serious knee injuries is well documented, however this is also mainly based on data from recreational skiers. When we additionally consider the lack of methods for assessing a good description of the involved kinematics, we soon realize that extrapolating the conclusions onto more advanced skiers might not be valid. Freestyle mogul skiing, like other new disciplines of skiing, differ from traditional alpine skiing in being more extreme in the term of knee kinetics. Both mogul skiing and arials are skiing behaviours that represent a trend in modern recreational skiing, and thus can serve as a model for a wide group of alpine skiers. Such advanced skiing gives rise to several questions concerning knee injury epidemiology, knee injury mechanisms, and the properties of the equipment. Better knowledge of the nature of skiing, knee kinetics and knee injury mechanisms in an extreme skiing discipline such as World Cup freestyle, can therefore be of great benefit to the understanding and the prevention of knee injuries in extreme skiing, not just in elite skiers, but also among the large group of more advanced recreational skiers.
The aim of this study is to describe the mechanisms of knee injuries in freestyle skiing by means of kinematic analyses.
Video recordings from injury situations in freestyle World Cup skiing will be collected, preferably from national broadcasting companies, but also from amateur recordings where available. We will be represented at most of the competitions during the seasons 2001/2002 and 2002/2003. The videotapes will be digitised, enhanced, deinterlaced and analysed using the model-matching technique described in study 1. The analyses will include descriptions of the skiers: position in the mogul course, manoeuvres performed preceding the injury, movement of the body relative to the skis, movement of the skis relative to each other, body posture and limb position.
Based on these variables, a classification and description of the injury situations will be performed. Such characteristics will later be utilized to develop release criterions for intelligent bindings. This information may also be used to educate skiers by improving their awareness of injury circumstances and mechanisms, which previously has been shown to reduce the rate of knee injuries.
Finally, we will qualitatively evaluate the behaviour of the athlete preceding the injury in each situation. In this project, a close collaboration between biomechanists, clinicians and skiing experts is foreseen.