Acl Tears Research Paper

The Terror of ACL Tears
If you walk into any high school at any time of year, you will most likely see several students on crutches and or wearing knee braces. Most often, these injuries are a result of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, better known as ACL. Research reports this common injury “has steadily increased among 6- to 18-year-olds in the United States, rising more than 2 percent a year over the last two decades” (Reinberg). As common as the injury may be among young athletes, the increase in occurrences should not be ignored. ACL injuries’ dramatic rise among teens in the past twenty years is alarming and should motivate parents, coaches, schools, and doctors to re-examine adolescent athletics.
This debilitating injury frequently …show more content…
Their statistics explain the differences found in male and females “among teenage athletes, the rate of ACL tears is rising, with the sharpest increase seen in females aged 13-17 who, over the last 13 years, have experienced a 59 percent increase in the number of required reconstruction procedures” (UNC School of Medicine). These numbers should cause great concern among students, parents, coaches and doctors. While the injuries are noteworthy among both genders, the rate for girls is higher. The American Academy of Pediatricians clarifies this “males had an overall increase of 2.2 percent per year and experienced peak rates of ACL tears at age 17. Females, meanwhile, saw an increase of 2.5 percent per year and experienced most ACL tears at age 16” (American Academy of Pediatricians). These numbers are frightening, especially for female athletes whose increased ACL tears over the past twenty years has increased in all age groups; males’ injuries, on the other hand, have only increased in the 15-16 year old group (American Academy of Pediatricians). Females not only have a greater risk of initial injury but also a greater risk of reinjury. Jeffrey Spang, MD, associate professor of orthopaedics at the UNC School of Medicine, explains “‘females have both a higher rate of re-tear and a higher rate of injury to the other knee,’ Spang said. ‘More than 10 percent of …show more content…
He hopes the research done on ACL injuries "will help foster discussion both about how changes in pediatric athletic participation over the past 20 years may be impacting injury rates and how we can best develop youth injury prevention programs and athletic participation guidelines" (American Academy of Pediatricians) . One way to do this, according to Tompkins, is to create more preventative programs aimed at decreasing injuries. Stephen Swirsky, an orthopedic surgeon at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, and his team have developed an injury prevention program to reduce ACL injuries. He states one of the best ways to reduce injuries is to “teach good running techniques, which will improve function and agility” (Jayanthi, et al.). Their program teaches safe jumping, landing, warm-ups, hamstring strengthening, balance, stretching, and plyometrics. Additionally, the program emphasizes the importance of flexibility and stretching as “the more flexible they are, the less likely they are to have an injury.”(Reinberg). These programs and their techniques have shown decreases in ACL injuries. Another proven way to prevent injury is to change the ways teams warm up. According to Sprang, there are specific warm up skills teams could and should use. He specifically supports the FIFA 11+ program as “one of the most popular and well-studied injury prevention programs”. This program includes “ a

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