Study Aims to Lower Risk of ACL Reinjury in Children

Pediatric sports medicine physician-researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago are leading a randomized controlled trial on combined anterior cruciate ligament ACL and anterolateral ligament (ALL) reconstruction in children and adolescents, with funding from the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA.)

The research aims to determine whether performing a concomitant ALL reconstruction at the time of ACL reconstruction lowers the ACL graft failure rate in young people. It will also compare patient-reported outcome measures for children undergoing combined ACL and ALL reconstruction and those undergoing ACL reconstruction alone. A third target is to help determine the rate and types of surgical complications related to ALL reconstruction in children and adolescents.

The trial will involve at least four high-volume centers, including Lurie Children’s, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital and Benioff Children’s Hospital at UCSF. Each institution performs over 150 ACL reconstructions in children annually.

“We hope to solve a challenging and prevalent problem in pediatric sports medicine with high-level evidence,” said Neeraj Patel, MPH, MD, MBS, who was awarded the St. Giles Young Investigator Award, and is the study’s principal investigator. “A low-morbidity intervention that lowers the risk of ACL reinjury could have a tremendous impact on thousands of children annually.”