Prevalence of Concomitant Injuries by Sport in Pediatric Patients With ACL Rupture

Although the risk of concomitant injury with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears as a function of specific sports participation has been studied in adults, the topic has not been examined in pediatric and adolescent patients.

The purpose of the study was to determine if certain sports were associated with a higher risk of concomitant injuries in the setting of an ACL tear. It was hypothesized that the risk of concomitant injuries with ACL tears will differ by type of sport participation in the pediatric population.

Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3.

Patients ≤18 years old from 2 tertiary children's hospitals who had undergone primary ACL reconstruction between 2006 and 2018 were included. Sport at the time of injury, demographic factors, and injury pattern (medial meniscal [MM] tears, lateral meniscal [LM] tears, posterior cruciate ligament [PCL] tears, medial collateral ligament [MCL] tears, lateral collateral ligament [LCL] tears, and any concomitant injury) were identified.

A total of 855 patients with a mean age of 15.5 ± 1.7 years (range, 7-22 years) met the inclusion criteria. Of the included patients, 353 (41.3%) had an isolated ACL tear. A concomitant MM tear was identified in 27.6% of patients, LM tear in 42.9%, PCL injury in 0.4%, MCL injury in 3.0%, and LCL injury in 0.5%. There was no difference in the likelihood of concomitant MM injuries by sex (29.3% for male patients vs 26% for female patients; P = .31) or by sex within basketball (29.3% for male patients vs 25.6% for female patients; P = .96) or soccer (32.3% vs 26.3%; P = .06). Boys had higher proportions of LM injuries overall (51.7% for male patients vs 34.6% for female patients; P < .001) but not within the basketball subgroup (50.5% vs 40.0%; P = .86) or the soccer subgroup (59.7% vs 40.0%; P = .19). No statistically significant associations were found between patient age and specific ACL concomitant injury patterns. When stratifying by body mass index, it was found overweight and obese individuals constituted a greater proportion of LM (49.6% vs 39.1%; P = .01) but not MM (29.4% vs 25.5%; P = .28) injuries when compared to normal-weight patients. Using basketball as the comparison group, soccer and football injuries were 18% more likely to result in any concomitant injury, including concomitant MM, LM, PCL, MCL, and LCL injuries.

In the pediatric population, soccer and football players were more likely to present with a concomitant injury in addition to ACL injury relative to basketball players. This study aids in understanding sport-associated ACL injury patterns and can help physicians with patient counseling and injury prevention.