“In our study, ACL surgery occurred more rapidly among pediatric and adolescent subjects who were more affluent, covered by commercial insurance and who were older when first seen. It was also interesting to note that ethnicity, gender and obesity did not show a significant correlation to time of treatment,” Justin T. Newman, M.D., stated in a news release.
The study included 133 patients who had a mean age of 15 years at injury and a mean time to surgery of 2.29 months. Adjusting for household income, the surgery rate was 1.19 times greater for every one-year increase in age at time of injury. Controlling for age at injury, the surgery rate was 1.13 times greater for every $10,000 increase in household income.
Newman and colleagues found that patients who delayed ACL reconstruction surgery for more than five months after injury and returned to sports prior to surgery had an increased severity of concomitant pathology. Patients who had surgery more than five months after injury also had a 7.81 times greater odds of chondral or meniscal injury which required additional surgery.
“According to most recent research, treating pediatric ACL injuries in a more timely manner leads to better outcomes and a quicker return to sports,” Newman stated.
While timely treatment helps children to return to their favorite sports quicker, being athletically active might be partly responsible for the injury. A recently published study shows an increasing rate of ACL reconstructions in children and experts attribute the growing number of injuries to juvenile sports programs.
Overall, study results showed an increase in the rate of ACL reconstructions in patients aged 3 years to 20 years from 17.6 per 100,000 in 1990 to 50.9 per 100,000 in 2009. According to the study results, the peak age for ACL reconstruction in 2009 was 17 years and the youngest patient to undergo ACL reconstruction was 9 years old. Researchers found male patients had a 15 percent higher rate of ACL reconstruction compared with female patients. ACL reconstruction also was six-times more common in patients with private health insurance compared to Medicaid patients.