Optimizing the performance and treatment of the female athlete

It is our distinct pleasure to highlight the topic of “Sports Related Injuries of the Female Athlete” in Annals of Joint (AOJ). Women manifest disease and respond differently to treatment across medical specialties. Cardiovascular health is the field that has received the most widespread attention; our awareness of the differences in clinical presentation of cardiac distress between men and women has, in very simple terms, saved countless lives. Similarly, musculoskeletal pathology differs on many levels between male and female patients. Fundamental physiologic differences play a major role. For example, female pelvic and hip anatomy and relative strength differences increases the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury; and greater joint laxity can lead to a greater incidence of shoulder and patellofemoral instability. Moreover, understanding these differences allows the treating surgeon to counsel the patient as to the best surgical treatment option, such as optimal graft choice in ACL reconstruction that will lead to lowest rate of re-rupture. These are just a few examples outlining the many ways in which we can enhance athletic performance, injury prevention, recognition and treatment of the female athlete. We take a deep dive into some of the most common of these in this edition.

This series aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the most relevant topics in the treatment of female athletes. The aim is to provide the reader with an understanding of how nutritional and mental health affect performance, injury and recovery as well as review the most common injury patterns and their treatments. Our expert contributing authors delve into the risk factors for injury, injury prevention and up-to-date information on treatment, both nonsurgical and surgical. They also provide us with their pearls for treatment, which are invaluable, given their breadth of knowledge and experience.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to all of the authors and co-authors for their time and efforts in contributing to this series. To the Annals of Joint, thank you for highlighting this important topic and helping the medical community to continue to optimize preventative measures and treatment of their female patients.

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Joint for the series “Sports Related Injuries of the Female Athlete”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://aoj.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/aoj-21-18/coif). The series “Sports Related Injuries of the Female Athlete” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. SH and RVW served as the unpaid Guest Editors of the series. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Sommer Hammoud

Robin V. West