Pediatricians Suggest Training to Prevent Knee Surgeries Common Among Athletes

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the stabilizer of ligaments throughout the knee. Injuries to the ACL have grown more common among athletes and result in surgeries as well as long rehab processes, but some doctors think they can help.

A group of doctors, pediatricians, sports medicine and fitness experts, and orthorpadeic doctors published their study, "Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries: Diagnoses, Treatment, and Prevention," in the journal Pediatrics. The authors documented the increase in ACL tears and surgeries as well as how neuromuscular training can help children and adolescents prevent such injury.

Neuromuscular training focuses on the optimal way to bend, jump, land, and pivot the knee, especially for athletes who rely on their ACL because it stabilizes the knee joint during movement. ACL tears commonly occur when one quickly changes direction or improperly makes a landing on the leg. Although we hear frequent news of professional male athletes suffering such injuries, they're actually most common in girls through their college years.

"The theory is that during the growth spurt that is part of puberty, a burst of testosterone helps boys get bigger muscles to go along with their new larger frames," said lead author and pediatric sports medicine specialist at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Cynthia LaBella, in this NPR article. "Girls don't get that burst."

The authors found that decreased neuromuscular control of knee motion was one of the risk factors associated with an ACL injury. They noted that such training is essential for younger athletes, especially girl athletes, in order to prevent an ACL injury as they get older. Soccer, basketball, and volleyball athletes were found to have a lower risk of ACL injuries when engaging in neuromuscular training, such as plyometrics, which focuses on difficult jumping exercises.

Previous studies found similar results. One study published last September in the U.S. National Library of Medicine sought to evaluate the effectiveness of neuromuscular warm-up programs in preventing ACL injuries in adolescent female soccer players. They found that even a short weekly program featuring neuromuscular exercises reduced the rate of anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

A neuromuscular program can be as short as ten minutes for two or three times a week. The authors hope that their findings can persuade schools and athletic programs to adopt the training techniques.

You can read more about the American Academy of Pediatrics published study in this Reuters news article.