Student blogger: The ever-present ACL injury

Arrowhead student blogger Michael Fox takes a look at ACL injuries, which have become a very common presence on the high-school sports scene. Typically season-ending ailments, ACL tears have shown up pretty commonly among local teams in recent months, with several basketball teams affected -- the Arrowhead girls (Sydney Pierson, Amanda Bauer), Kettle Moraine girls (Sam Pfeifer) and Sussex Hamilton boys (Kameron Cerroni) among them.

A little over a year ago in early January, Milwaukee Bucks leading scorer Michael Redd landed awkwardly after a shot against the Sacramento Kings in Milwaukee.  An MRI showed that he had torn both his ACL and MCL in his left knee and wouldn't play again that season.

Redd was playing again in the 2009-2010 when the 2008 Olympian once again suffered an ACL and MCL tear in his left knee, ending his season and perhaps his career. Though the ACL tear is a rare injury that once appeared more prominently in the college and pro sphere, this life-changing injury seems to plague more and more high school athletes each year.

I wanted to know if high school athletes worry about this phenomenon and what can be done to prevent it.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament is the main stabilizing ligament in the knee. This ligament connects the femur to the tibia, or in layman’s terms, the thigh bone to the leg bone. When a quick turning or cutting action is applied to the knee, the pressure can cause a snap or pop in the ligament and will result in immediate instability and swelling of the knee. 

Football, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer typically lead to ACL tears because of the constant jumping, pivoting and cutting movements. The injury mostly occurs in non-contact situations, and more frequently in female athletes. 

While it is definitively unclear why female athletes are more prone to this injury than males, the New England Musculoskeletal Institute at the University of Connecticut Health Center believes it has something to do with differences in hormones and muscle strength, as well as a smaller bone notch in females, where the ACL is located.

Often when an ACL tear occurs, torn cartilage follows in the lateral meniscus of the knee, as well as the joint surface. There are two main methods of treatment -- surgery or just bracing and rehabilitation.  Athletes will often choose surgery so they can quickly regain strength in their knee to remain active.  Usually the time for recovery and returning to sports is seven to nine months after much restoration and rehab.

The Arrowhead girls basketball team has become very familiar with these details. In 2008, senior standout guard Katie Hackbart tore her ACL and missed the season after earning conference Player of the Year honors as a junior. Hackbart worked hard to get back on the hardwood, but in her sophomore year at St. Norbert’s College in DePere, she tore her ACL a second time. 

A little over a month ago, Warhawks starting point guard, senior Sydney Pierson, fell to the ground in a game at Milwaukee Pius when she pivoted awkwardly on her on right leg and felt her knee pop. 

“When it happened it felt like a sword cut my leg in half and I couldn’t feel the bottom half of my leg,” Pierson said, “I was in so much pain that I went into a state of shock and I was in a panicky state.  I kept thinking of how it was my senior year and how I was supposed to lead my team and just negative thoughts like that.”  

After a week of icing and rest, Pierson went to see Dr. Gerard Adler in Oconomowoc. Days later, an MRI confirmed that Pierson had completely torn her ACL and part of her LCL. She opted for a two hour hamstring surgery, which involved getting 22 centimeters of her hamstring double wrapped around the ACL to basically create a new ligament.

“I’m not at a full range of motion yet and that’s what makes me the most apprehensive (about playing in college), because I don’t want to have to go through this same mess again," Pierson said. "The whole Katie Hackbart situation really scares me. I don’t want that to be me.” 

For now, Pierson’s therapy takes place twice a week at Aurora Health Care in Oconomowoc. After five weeks, she’s finally off crutches.

“So far, it’s been a month and a half since surgery; my goal is to regain the full range of motion back in my knee soon," she said. "Hopefully in three months, I’ll able to start running again.”  

Five weeks after Pierson went down, the Hawks lost her replacement starter to the same injury. Returning letterwinner and sophomore guard Amanda Bauer felt the same sword cut through her season Feb. 19.  Bauer, who is also a state-level runner that competed in the 4x800-meter relay in last year's state track meet as a freshman, saw her sophomore sports season come to a premature end.

Junior Carly Cech is a two time starter for the Warhawks girl’s soccer team, a team that lost one of its starters to an ACL injury last year. When asked if she ever worried about this kind of injury occurring, Cech said she never personally worries about an ACL or any other season ending injury. 

But the coaches do. As a warm up for practices and games, the team does a strength building exercise labeled “bounding,"  jumping laterally from left to right on opposite feet to help strengthen the muscles that surround the ACL. 

But as far as prevention, not much can be done. 

“There really is no fool proof way to prevent that kind of injury," said Rachel Kuhntz, Arrowhead trainer and a member of the Orthopedics Association of Wisconsin. “What they say now is that the most effective way to prevent this injury is working on hip strength and gleut strength.” 

Other areas that should be involved with strength training are the quads and hamstrings as well as the abdominal region. 

“Working and focusing on core strength is also important, taking time off in between seasons to give muscles the time to heal is a part of this,” Kuhntz said. 

The Orthapedics Association of Wisconsin even offers year round camps used to help prevent ACL tears.  But as far as the recent rash of ACL tears in high school sports go, there is no real answer for why. 

“The only thought is that there are more and more athletes participating now, but that doesn’t answer why," Kuhntz said.