Why Johnny Can't Plant the Foot

The torn ACL epidemic among our sporting youth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/health/18knee.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1203347192-Xrb65Q4fHjCaNTm8vM+XHQ

 

I saw this last night, and was amazed at some of the stuff in there, like the picture of a 12 year old with a repaired ACL doing squats in a gym. This was a little scary, in reference to the operation on kids with developing growth plates:

'A year after the operation, Dr. Fu said, the leg with the repair was bowed 20 degrees on one side and was shorter than the other leg.

“I had to go in on the other side and stop the growth,” Dr. Fu said. “Now, about six months later, the leg is still crooked. There still is a two-inch difference in length which I have to fix.” The boy, he said, “will be a little bit shorter” as a result, although both legs will be the same length.'



And the author's name - Gina Kolata - is a hoot.

 

Line in that story confused me.
It says that the "old belief" was that boys suffered ACL tears more than girls. However, after tearing my left ACL (I later tore the right) in 1996, the doctor told me that girls were more prone to the injury because of how their hips and knees were alligned.

 

A leading orthopedic surgeon recently told me girls, especially those who play basketball and/or soccer, are the group most prone to ACL injuries.

 

True, but how old was that "belief" that boys were more prone to ACL injuries? The fact that it happens much more often to girls, particularly in basketball and soccer, is not new.

 

Right, and I don't know the answer to that. Judging from MU's experience, at least one orthopedist has believed for at least 12 years that girls were more susceptible.

 

I remember hearing about it a little bit when I was covering women's basketball in college in the early '90s. That was before the women's basketball dream team and the U.S. winning the the World Cup in women's soccer, so the interest in women's basketball and soccer wasn't as high as it is now.

 

I think nowadays that women/girls are more prone to ACL tears is pretty common knowledge. There's also research coming out that shows females are more likely to tear their ACL during their periods, which may be part of why we're so much more prone to it (in addition to the fact our bottom halves are put together very differently)

 

Women are much more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligaments. Reports claim that they are four to six times more likely to suffer the injury than their male counterparts.

 

Like I said, I think it's been common knowledge for a long, long time. That's why I was curious about the line in the Times' story pointing to the opposite.

 

This was one of those "And so what now" stories". Is the Times suggesting that kids should just sit on the sofa and play with their x-box.

Article provided little context. How about some statistics about more girls playing organized sports or comparisons of bike accident injuries.

 

She's been covering health issues for the Times for years, you meathead.