Preventing and Reducing ACL Injury: a 'PEP' Talk for Every Athlete
Posted on Mar 14, 2017 9:30am PDT
Bert Mandelbaum, MD recently authored a blog for U.S. News & World
Report about how the PEP Program helps prevent and reduce ACL injury for athletes.
As an avid researcher and
orthopedic surgeon in practice for more than two decades, ACL tears have consistently been
at the top of the totem pole when it comes to the sports injuries I research
and treat the most. In fact, it is estimated that of the 200,000 ACL injuries
that occur each year in the U.S., most will require surgery to repair
or reconstruct the ligament and restore normal range of motion –
all with the goal of getting people back to sport or living the active
life they love.
In the case of athletes specifically, too many in otherwise pristine athletic
condition suffer the fate of an often season-ending (sometimes career-ending
in extreme cases) ACL injury. Especially in what are considered high-risk
sports such as basketball,
football, skiing, volleyball and soccer, the
ACL injury risk is even greater. My esteemed colleagues and I began to wonder: Are these
ACL injuries an assumed "fate" that can actually be avoided?
The answer to that very question is one I and a team of my colleagues
set out to study beginning in 2000. The question we wanted to answer was
this: Is there a way that painful and
costly ACL injuries can be prevented in athletes across a wide spectrum of sports? That question
took 10 years of diligence in helping to answer, but resulted in the establishment
and fine-tuning of a program for young sports players to avoid knee injuries,
most significantly ACL tears.
To read the entire article,
click here.