ACL Injury Prevention Wrap

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The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is one of the four major ligaments of the knee that help with movement and stability. What would happen if this ligament were to tear? ACL injury has been a problem for many years, 200,000+ cases of these injuries are reported annually. Now this is a huge problem because if you tear your ligament in your knee, walking would be difficult, mobility would be limited, but most of all, your life would change dramatically. Doctors have had conferences and done ours of research to figure out how to stop people from tearing their ACL's or at least lower the numbers, but still have yet to come up with a solution. About 70% of all ACL injuries are due to playing agility sports such as soccer, basketball, and football. Now doctors have argued that if the cause of this injury is because of sports, then they should be removed from sports all together to prevent this situation from even happening. But telling a child that he/she can't play sports or do any physical activity is like telling a dog to not bark, it's just not possible. This led me to think about solutions that could help athletes worldwide to prevent them from getting hurt and ruining their careers. After hours on top of hours of research on ACL injuries I came up with the AIPW or the ACL Injury Prevention Wrap. This wrap would provide support as well as protection for the athlete's ACL. To get this wrap, the athlete would have a 3D scanner/printer (which is how the wrap would be made) with him/her. Next, the athlete would proceed to scanning their leg to make their very own wrap that fit for their leg to provide the best support. After the leg is scanned, the 3D printer that is connected to the scanner would then print out the wrap. Unlike other 3D printers, this 3D printer would print a wrap like substance that is made out of cotton fibers with polymer-elastic strands woven throughout it to allow for flexibility, but at the same time is sturdy and adds support. Now that this is made, the athlete can wear it during all of his/hers sporting events. The idea of this wrap is to protect the acl, so during the sporting event, it will be very flexible for the athlete to run around and still have their usual range of motion, but once they move past a certain range of motion, the wrap would become ridged and sturdy to prevent the leg from moving that way any further to prevent the acl from tearing. By doing this, athletes across the nation can be saved from the horrors of tearing their acl and doctors would have less patients in their offices to tell athletes that they cannot play the sport the love anymore. This would change the athletic world as we know it for the better protecting athletes and letting them fulfill their dreams and ambitions with no acl injuries to get in the way of that.