Children and pre-teens requiring knee surgery after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear injury, commonly known as an ACL tear, are better off having the surgery in a timely manner as postponement leads to potential further damage, says new research.
The study, presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, evaluated data from 135 patients ages 8 to 16 who had suffered ACL tears.
"While parents and other caregivers have obvious reasons for concern over ACL surgery in young patients, it's important to recognize when it may be beneficial," said study author Allen F. Anderson, M.D., from the Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance in Nashville, in a statement.
Researchers said risk factors for lateral meniscal tears increased the longer ACL surgery was put off.
While parents and caregivers may be wary of a child undergoing surgery, the study teams says the potential injury risk outweighs those concerns.
"But what I've seen over 20 years and what this study demonstrates is that delaying surgery results in recurrent instability, meniscal damage and damage to the lining of the bone or degenerative changes that end up causing young people to have arthritis at a much earlier age," said Anderson.
The ACL plays a role in keeping the knee joint stabilized. It is often injured when a person is involved in a sports activity and lands on a leg wrong, comes to a sudden stop after running or when an athlete changes direction while in movement.
In the study the young athletes were separated out based on the timing of surgeries. Those children who had ACL surgery six to 12 weeks after injury were 45 percent more likely to have a lateral meniscus injury and those waiting more than 12 weeks were three times more prone to the additional injury.
The data, say researchers, indicates that not treating an ACL tear with surgery in an efficient time frame "carries a high risk" of additional injury "which may result in long-term knee impairment."
