Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
ACL injuries in children
Recent information shows that Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries sometimes occur to children while playing sports. Parents should be informed about the unique challenges of how to treat and repair ACL injuries in children.
According to ACL Solutions, the bones and joints of children are very different from the bones and joints of adults because children’s bones are still growing. The ACL Solutions website provides information that is written and reviewed by orthopedic surgeons who specialize in the treatment of these knee injuries.
ACL injuries happen when people rupture or tear a ligament inside their knee. The four classic symptoms include: hearing a pop inside the knee, feeling the knee giving away at the time of injury, the knee swells immediately or within a few hours of the injury, and exhibits extreme pain.
When ACL injuries happen to children, caring for them becomes complicated because the children’s bones are still growing. Orthopedic surgeons try to find a treatment that doesn’t restrict the child’s activities or change the way the children’s bones grow normally. ACL surgery for children is also more difficult because there is a risk that the normal development of the bones may be changed by the surgery.
Orthopedic doctors first treat children with injured ACL with a course of physical therapy and rehabilitation. The physical therapy strengthens the hamstrings and quadriceps muscle, helps the swelling to go down, and works on regaining the motion in the knee. In some cases of ACL injury, participation in certain sports might damage the rest of the knee if the injury is not fixed. These sports involve running, jumping, and those sports that change direction quickly, like soccer, basketball, baseball, or skiing. In these situations, it is best to stop the activity and fix the injury with surgery. If the orthopedic doctor doesn’t feel the torn ligament has significant looseness, they feel surgery is not necessary.
The growth plate where bones grow is located near the knee joint at the ends of the femur (thighbone) and tibia (shinbone). When doctors repair the ACL, they drill tunnels in the bone through the area of the growth plate. This is not a problem for adults whose growth has ended. However, this situation with children creates a risk of the tibia or femur growing at an abnormal angle if their growth plate is injured. And if an injury happens to very young children who have a lot of growing to do, there is a risk of permanent damage if their growth plate is injured.
Doctors cannot say whether drilling a small hole through the bone that goes through the growth plate is safe, since every child is different. Orthopedic surgeons are searching for different surgical techniques that try to minimize the damage to the growth plate.
Children who are more than 14 years old can generally have their ACLs safely repaired with the usual surgical techniques. Doctors may recommend that younger children wait until they’re older or use another type of reconstruction that doesn’t involve drilling holes through the growth plate.
Knee surgery is the first part of the treatment for a torn ACL. The recovery involves work and commitment through physical therapy and rehabilitation to complete the recovery.
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