ACL Injury Epidemic in Young Athletes

The ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] is one of the major ligaments that provide stability to the knee joint. The age group that is most prone to injury of the ACL is not the ranks of professional athletes, as one might think, but athletes under the age of 25.

The number of ACL injuries, particularly among high school students, has risen dramatically over the past 20 years. Researchers have found the overall incidence of ACL tears among 6 to 18-year-old patients has increased by 2.3% per year, and the rate of ACL tears surgically reconstructed has increased by 3% per year.

“ACL injuries have become a youth sports epidemic and are the No. 1 sports injury we operate on at our outpatient surgical center,” said Jennifer Beck, M.D., associate director of the Center for Sports Medicine at the Orthopaedic Institute for Children in Los Angeles. “The injury is most common in sports that involve sudden changes of direction—such as football and soccer,” she said.

Beck told a Business Wire reporter that most ACL injuries are not the result of contact with another player. Instead they occur during sudden twisting motions as when the feet are planted one way and the knees are turned another way or when landing from a jump.

Beck says that athletes can reduce their risk of ACL injuries by performing training drills that require balance, jumping, power and agility. “Drills such as these also help improve neuromuscular conditioning and muscular reactions and have shown to ultimately decrease the risk of ACL injury.”

Other exercises she recommends include a variety of focused stretches, leg raises, leg lifts, prone hip extensions and sidesteps with a Theraband resistance band.

Finally Beck advises young athletes to avoid skipping warm-ups, drink enough fluids, use the proper equipment and to never play through pain.