ACL Tears Among Young Children Are On the Rise

Doctors nationwide have been treating ACL injuries now more than ever in young children. The New York Times reports that years ago, it was believed that young children's ligaments were stronger than their bones, therefore expecting a child's Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) would be injured less than their bones. However, specialists today are treating children regulary for ACL tearing, when a decade ago, most specialists had few annual visits for such an injury.

Specialist believe that they are treating more young children for ACL injuries due to children becomming involved in competative sports earlier. Unlike 20 years ago, there are hundreds of thousands of travel and ellite sports teams that are local to many citizens' residences. Because the level of competition is higher now than ever amongst young athletes, it is easy and common for them to become injured, thus attributing to the increase in ACL tears in children.

Certain specialists are opposed to performing surgery on ACL tears in children. Because a child's leg bones are not yet fully developed, drilling screws into a child's growth plate to stabilize the ACL raises concerns. There have been a few alternative surgeries for young patients that avoid drilling into the growth plate and, instead, drilling holes in fully developed bone to thread the tendons. However, this method's long terms effects are unknown and doctors are currently researching other possible surgery alternatives for young athletes treating ACL tears.