Training can help teens avoid knee injuries
By Katherine Hobson, NPR
If you’re a teenage athlete, or the parent of one, you probably live in fear of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, one of the knee’s key stabilizing ligaments.
A torn ACL often requires surgical repair. But so-called neuromuscular training programs can cut the risk of a serious ACL injury and should be recommended to at-risk young athletes, especially girls, according to a clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
ACL injuries, which can sideline an athlete for months, hit both genders, but right after puberty they occur as much as six times more frequently in young women, depending on the sport. Female high school soccer players experience 11.7 ACL injuries per 100,000 exposures, for example, compared to 4.7 for the males.
