WASHINGTON — More girls are playing sports than ever, and that has led to an epidemic of knee ligament tears.
Repair surgery is effective, but researchers say doctors and coaches need to keep a close eye on these kids when they return to the playing field.
That’s because young athletes who have surgery to reconstruct a torn anterior cruciate ligament — or ACL — have a high rate of re-injury.
Researchers in Australia followed 242 young athletes who had the operation between 1993 and 1998. They found that within 15 years, 31 percent eventually messed up that knee again.
That is much higher than the re-injury rate for adults with ACL tears. The researchers emphasize surgery may well be the best option for young athletes, but physicians need to keep that high re-injury rate in mind.
The study looked at data from 104 girls and 138 boys with an average age of 16. Most returned to the pre-injury level of activity following surgery, with 75 sustaining a repeat injury over the long term.
Although the Australians looked at data on both female and male young athletes, orthopedists say it is the girls who suffer the most.
They are eight to ten times more likely than boys to tear an ACL because of differences in the way they jump and pivot. Most of the young female athletes who end up having ACL surgery play sports where those moves are crucial — such as lacrosse, basketball or soccer.
The research findings were present at a meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.
