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FeedACL Tears in Young Athletes Soar
As youth sports get more competitive, the occurrence of season-ending ACL injuries continues to rise. Reconstruction risks include stunted growth among the youngest victims.
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See also "How to Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance."
As a sports medicine specialist, Dr. Bradley Smith is used to seeing patients limp into his office at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Shocking to Smith is how young some of them are.
“It certainly seems that there’s been an increase in ACL tears in young athletes,” he says.
More than a decade ago, there were about 250,000 ACL injuries annually in the United States. That number has climbed yearly since, as has the frequency of tears among athletes 13 and younger. Bodies may be getting bigger, stronger and faster these days, but the ligaments retain the same strength regardless. “There are simply more kids getting active, but there are also kids playing more than one sport at a time,” Smith says. “When you have constant muscle fatigue, you get a little sloppy, you fall more easily, and you’re more likely to tear your ACL.”
It’s the reason tears happen later in games and seasons, and the reason there seems to be an MRI facility within a few miles of everyone’s house, he says.
