In a new article published in Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology and Arthroscopy, the knee function of ACL-injured children below 13 years was evaluated using single-legged hop tests, isokinetic muscle strength measurements, and three functional questionnaires. This is the first medium-term follow-up study that has used performance based functional hop tests to evaluate ACL-injured knees in children.
Twenty-six children were examined two to nine years after the injury. More than half of the injuries occurred in falls while playing or in alpine skiing.
It was found that the children show normal performance in functional test, and that 65% of the children had returned to pre-injury activity level without further knee injuries after non-operative treatment. This study indicates that it is safe to delay ACL surgery in children, as long as the knee is stable in their preferred activities.
The study was conducted at the Norwegian research centre for Active Rehabilitation (NAR), Orthopaedic Centre, Ullevaal University Hospital and NIMI Ullevaal. The authors were Håvard Moksnes, Lars Engebretsen and May Arna Risberg.
Read the article here