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ACL Injuries in Children: Treatment and Outcomes – Personal Experience

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The ACL-Deficient Knee

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Abstract

A rising number of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are seen in children and adolescents, and the management of these injuries is still a matter of debate [4, 8, 25]. In contrary to the skeletally mature patient where arthroscopically intra-articular transphyseal reconstruction techniques are the standard of care, the treatment of ACL instability among skeletally immature patients remains a controversially debated topic surrounding surgical techniques and risks of growth disturbances [4, 10, 15, 17, 23, 34]. In the past decades, nonsurgical treatment of ACL injuries in the immature patients was considered the most appropriate initial approach until skeletally maturity was reached [34]. The rationale of this approach is to allow the physes to close before a surgical intervention primarily because of the fear of possible growth plate damage associated most notably with transphyseal reconstruction techniques [28, 30, 36].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopic Surgery, Orthopädische Klinik Markgröningen, Kurt-Lindemann Weg 10, 71706, Markgroeningen, Germany

    Jörg Richter M.D., Micha Immendörfer M.D. & Martin Schulz M.D.

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  1. Jörg Richter M.D.
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  2. Micha Immendörfer M.D.
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  3. Martin Schulz M.D.
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Correspondence to Jörg Richter M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Depto. Cirugia Ortopédica, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, c/San Clemente 12, Valencia, 46015, Spain

    Vicente Sanchis-Alfonso

  2. , Orthopaedic Surgery, Hospital de Sant Pau, St Antoni m Claret 167, Barcelona, 08025, Spain

    Joan Carles Monllau

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Richter, J., Immendörfer, M., Schulz, M. (2013). ACL Injuries in Children: Treatment and Outcomes – Personal Experience. In: Sanchis-Alfonso, V., Monllau, J. (eds) The ACL-Deficient Knee. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4270-6_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4270-6_26

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4270-6

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