A qualitative screening tool to identify athletes with ‘high-risk’ movement mechanics during cutting: The cutting movement assessment score (CMAS)

Review written by Dr Travis Pollen info

Key Points

  1. There was a very large relationship between the cutting movement assessment score (CMAS) and peak knee abduction moments. The CMAS appears to be a good indicator of ACL strain while cutting.
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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Field and court sports often require lateral cutting maneuvers to evade opponents and create open space. These maneuvers place high knee abduction moments (KAM) on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), making them a common mechanism of non-contact ACL injuries.

When cutting, ACL injury risk is increased by the presence of certain joint positions such as knee valgus, trunk lateral flexion, and inadequate knee flexion. To assess for these high-risk patterns, three-dimensional motion capture is the gold standard. However, most clinicians don’t have access to this technology. A reliable, valid, and field-expedient clinical alternative is needed. The cutting movement assessment score (CMAS) was recently designed for this purpose. The CMAS is comprised of 9 qualitative observations regarding lower extremity and trunk mechanics during a cut. The objectives of this study were:

  1. To determine the relationship between CMAS and peak KAM during a cut
  2. To determine whether there were kinematic and kinetic differences (as measured by 3D motion capture) between groups with high and low CMAS
  3. To assess the CMAS’s reliability

When cutting, ACL injury risk is increased by the presence of certain joint positions such as knee valgus, trunk lateral flexion, and inadequate knee flexion.
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Compared to athletes with lower cutting movement assessment scores, athletes with higher scores displayed kinematics and kinetics associated with higher knee joint loading.

METHODS

41 athletes with no history of knee injury participated (28 males/13 females, 21±4 years old). The athletes performed 4-6 trials of maximal velocity 90° cuts. Each trial was filmed with three high-speed cameras at 100 frames per second (FPS) positioned

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