(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It sends thousands of patients to the OR every year, and those patients are getting younger. New research shows ACL tears are on the rise in women and teens, and more and more often leading to re-injury and multiple surgeries.

In the largest study of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery to date, investigators found patients younger than 20 who underwent reconstructive surgery had an 82 percent increased risk for an additional ACL surgery. In addition, the younger a patient was, the more likely it was he or she would need another surgery within one year of the initial procedure.

"We believe that younger patients may be at a higher risk for additional ACL surgery because they tend to be more active and this can lead to graft rupture," study author Stephen Lyman, Ph.D., director of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, was quoted as saying.

Other factors found to increase the likelihood of a second ACL surgery include being female and receiving treatment from surgeons who performed fewer than six ACL operations per year or at hospitals that handled fewer than 24 ACL cases per year. Female patients were 18 percent more likely than men to need subsequent surgery on one of their knees.

Dr. Lyman said understanding these risk factors is important since re-injury and subsequent surgeries can lead to arthritis.

SOURCE: Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, October 2009

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