More and more, kids are overexerting their bodies in competitive sports. According to the National Safe Kids Campaign, more than 3.5 million children ages 14 and under receive medical treatment for sports injuries every year.
Most of these injuries occur during unorganized or informal sports activities, with 30 percent of parents reporting their child has been injured while playing a team sport. Half of them say their child has been injured more than once.
Most organized sports-related injuries occur during practices rather than games. Most sports injuries in kids can be attributed to immature bones, insufficient rest after injury, and poor training or conditioning.
During the teenage years, girls are more likely to suffer sports injuries than boys. Experts attribute the tendency to increased estrogen -- which adds fat rather than muscle and makes ligaments lax -- as well as the less-flexed, more upright running position of girls. In addition, because of wider hips, girls are more likely to be knock-kneed (Source: New York Times).
Juvenile Osteochondritis Dissecans (JOCD) occurs in young people when their growth plates haven't closed yet. The condition causes a piece of bone and the piece of cartilage that covers it to come loose and float around inside a joint like the knee.
JOCD usually affects active children and young adolescents. Although it can lead to arthritis, children with the condition normally do very well long-term. Symptoms including joint "locking," stiffness and swelling.
Treatment for JOCD usually involves rest and casting, but kids with chronic JOCD or a large affected area may need surgery (Source: Children's Memorial Hospital Institute for Sports Medicine).
A recent study in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons says with conservative treatment alone, 50 percent of children with JOCD will heal to form a normal knee in adulthood.
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the knee's four main ligaments. A sudden, abrupt change in force to the knee can cause it to tear, and unfortunately, the ligament has virtually no capacity to heal itself once torn.
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Childhood Injuries
Learn more about injuries to immature bones and what doctors are doing to help with recovery.
 
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Because of the ligament's inability to heal, surgeons repair the tear by substituting a nearby tendon -- such as from the hamstring -- for the damaged one. Because this type of surgery involves going through the growth plates of the leg bone and thigh bone, it can cause growth of the leg to slow.
For this reason, doctors usually recommend a patient wait until they reach near skeletal maturity to undergo ACL reconstruction surgery.
