The rate of ACL reconstructions is on the rise, and as many as 6.5% of patients who undergo the procedure have another knee operation within a year, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
Researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, N.Y., reported a 21.5% increase — from 6,178 to 7,507 — in ACL repairs between 1997 and 2006.
The researchers discovered that risk factors for a second knee operation after an ACL repair increased in younger, female patients and patients who undergo procedures at lower-volume facilities or are operated on by a surgeon who doesn't perform many ACL surgeries.
"It is a small minority of patients who need further surgery early on, but that is a lot of trips back to the operating room considering how much surgery is done," says Robert Marx, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in the sports medicine and shoulder service at the Hospital for Special Surgery. "This is the largest study to look at factors that may affect subsequent surgeries after ACL reconstruction."
Daniel Cook
