ACL reinjury rates higher for athletes who have reconstruction younger

SEATTLE — Research presented here at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting shows reinjury rates are higher for young athletes who have ACL reconstruction prior to collegiate matriculation.

“Overall, the athlete cohort was seen to have high return to play and use of their remaining eligibility and that reoperation for continued pain or injury was not uncommon,” said Ganesh V. Kamath, MD.

Kamath and colleagues conducted retrospective chart reviews on 89 Division I athletes at a single, public university from 2000 to 2009 who had undergone ACL reconstruction. The cohort was divided into 35 athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction prior to collegiate enrollment and 54 athletes who underwent the procedure during their collegiate career. Information on graft survivorship, reoperation rates, and collegiate career length was analyzed in both cohorts.

The reoperation rate for the athletes who had ACL reconstruction prior to college was 51.4% and was 20.3% for the athletes who had ACL reconstruction during college. The reinjury rate the pre-collegiate group was 40% and 12.9% for the intra-collegiate group. The pre-collegiate athletes had injury rates of 17.1% to the original graft and 20% to the contralateral ACL. In contrast, the contralateral ACL injury rate in the intra-collegiate group was 9.2%. Overall, 88% of the athletes in the study were able to return to active competition. —by Christian Ingram

Reference:

Kamath GV. Paper #23. Presented at: American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting; July 10-13, 2014; Seattle.

Disclosure: Kamath has no relevant financial disclosures.