With more than one million athletes playing high school football the rising number and cost of knee surgeries and rehabilitation alone reaching more than $1 billion each year, coupled with the psychological trauma and setbacks in training typically experienced by athletes after a significant injury, efforts to address ways to minimize predisposition to injury are needed. Over the past decades, numerous studies have attributed to a greater risk and incidence of joint and concussive trauma to playing on artificial turf when compared to natural grass.More recently, a new generation of synthetic turf which composed of a polyethylene/polypropylene fiber blend stabilized with a graded silica sand and ground rubber infill, was developed to duplicate the playing characteristics of natural grass, thus decreasing sports-related injuries.

A recent study measured of the incidence, cause and severity of game-related high school football injuries on artificial turf vs. natural grass. It was estimated that the high school athletes would not experience any difference in injuries regardless of the type of turf on which they played.A total of 240 high school games were evaluated for injuries.Although similarities did exist between natural and artificial grass, significant and unique differences in sport trauma were observed between the two playing surfaces.

The results showed that artificial turf is no more likely to cause injury than natural grass. An athlete is just as likely to be injured on natural grass then artificial grass. There was a higher rate of ligament tears on the natural grass surface, while there was a higher rate surface/skin injury on artificial turf. Also, higher incidences of primary concussions and knee injuries were reported on natural grass than on artificial turf.

In conclusion, the study determined that there is a difference between the incidence, cause and severity of high school football injuries on artificial grass vs. natural grass.There were significant differences in injury time loss, injury mechanism, anatomical location of injury and type of tissue injured between playing surfaces (artificial grass vs. natural grass).

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