Is
the use of oral contraceptive associated with operatively treated anterior
cruciate ligament injury?: A case-control study from the Danish Knee Ligament
Reconstruction Registry.

Rahr-Wagner L, Thillemann TM, Mehnert
F, Pedersen AB, and Lind M. Am J Sports
Med
. 2014;
42:2897-2906.
           
Take
Home Message: Women who take oral contraceptives are less likely to sustain an anterior
cruciate ligament (ACL) injury than women who do not.

A woman is 2 to 9 times more likely to
have an ACL injury than a man, especially in the athletic population. A better
understanding of the factors that place women at a higher risk, would allow
clinicians to implement more effective preventative measures against ACL
injury. Previous literature has shown that collagen synthesis is inhibited when
estrogen levels are increased; therefore, Rahr-Wagner and colleagues completed
a case-control study to assess the impact of oral contraceptive use on the odds
of sustaining an operatively treated ACL injury among women in a national
registry. The authors used the Danish Ligament Reconstruction Register and
Danish Prescription Registry to identify 4497 women who underwent ACL surgery. Over
8,800 age-matched controls, who had no history of ACL injury, were selected from
the Danish Civil Registration System. The authors used the Danish Prescription
Registry to determine if the selected individuals used oral contraceptives. Selected
individuals were divided into those who ever used oral contraceptives or never
used. Among those who ever used oral contraceptives the authors evaluated new
users, recent users (took oral contraceptives but stopped), and long-term
users. Approximately, 45% percent of the group with an ACL injury used OC
compared with ~48% of the control group. After adjusting for important factors
(for example, obesity) the authors found that individuals who used oral
contraceptives were 11 to 20% less likely to sustain an ACL injury than those
who did not take oral contraceptives. These findings were similar for recent
users and long-term users. The number of new users were similar between those
with and without an ACL injury. Interestingly, using an oral contraceptive for
1 to 4 years may be protective but using an oral contraceptive for more than 4
years did not alter the likelihood of sustaining an ACL injury.

Overall, the authors found that oral
contraceptive use has a protective effect against ACL injury. However, one must
be cautious before trying to use an oral contraceptive to prevent ACL injuries
among women. The two major issues surrounding this data is completeness of
information and an inability to assess a patient’s activity level. One major
strength of this study was using various Danish registries to develop a large data
set; however, patients who did not undergo ACL surgery were omitted in this
study. Furthermore, the researchers were unable to determine who was physically
active – let alone who was participating in sports. Ultimately, this study
indicates that the next step should probably be a randomized clinical trial to
test if oral contraceptives can reduce the risk of ACL injuries. In the
meantime, clinicians may benefit from using this information more from a
diagnostic than preventative perspective. For example, clinicians may ask
patients about oral contraceptive use and want to use more ACL diagnostic tests
when evaluating knee injuries among athletes who do not use oral contraceptives,
as they are at a higher risk. Furthermore, if a patient asks about whether oral
contraceptives may help prevent an ACL injury we can use this study to explain
that there is some evidence to support this concept but it is unclear if it
will hold up in future studies with female athletes.

Questions
for Discussion: Do you currently make note of oral contraceptive use during
preseason athlete screening? If so, how do you feel this has impacted your
ability to prevent, diagnose and treat injuries if at all?

Written by: Kyle Harris
Reviewed by:  Jeffrey Driban

Related Posts:





Rahr-Wagner, L., Thillemann, T., Mehnert, F., Pedersen, A., & Lind, M. (2014). Is the Use of Oral Contraceptives Associated With Operatively Treated Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury?: A Case-Control Study From the Danish Knee Ligament Reconstruction Registry The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 42 (12), 2897-2905 DOI: 10.1177/0363546514557240