One of the things I’ve wanted to do is get more interviews with experts and athletes who are out there making a difference. Today’s blog post is with one of those experts.
Dr. Pete Edwards is an orthopedic surgeon at the Ohio Orthopedic Center of Excellence right here in Columbus, Ohio. His specialty is knees and ACL surgeries, or rather that is what he sees a lot of. He is the team physician for the Columbus Crew and has been the team physician for both the U.S. National Men’s and Women’s soccer teams, including the 1999 U.S. Women’s World Cup team.
Dr. Edwards was kind enough to let me have 20 minutes to throw some questions out to him. His office has several pictures of him and some very prominent U.S. soccer stars.
Because he gave me so much information, this is part one of my interview. Part two will be shown next Monday.
AK: I can recall one ACL injury back when I was in high school over 20 years ago. Now there seems to be a heck of a lot more ACL injuries. Are they happening more often or did they happen just as often back then and I was just oblivious to that?
PE: I think everyone was oblivious back then. I think it was always there, but people weren’t sophisticated enough to recognize it. Clearly, it is multi-factoral. There are more kids playing now, so there are more chances for injuries to happen, thus more injuries. I see a lot of soccer injuries because that is what I primarily work with and there are so many more opportunities now for kids to play soccer with the junior level programs. So, there is an increased exposure to injuries potentially happening because of the greater amount of kids playing.
There are also more girls now playing than before and they are at a higher risk for ACL tears. So once again, more exposure to a potential injury.
Finally, it is more recognized now. Back in the 80’s, people didn’t know what to call it. Since it wasn’t recognized as much, they didn’t really know how to fix it either. Now that it is recognized, it is a lot bigger deal so more documented injuries are occurring and being fixed.
AK: Safe to say then that there is probably the same amount of ACL injuries as back then, they are just recognized more now?
PE: For sure, but I think with more kids playing there’s more, but the real question parents need to ask is if my kid is at a higher risk and that is probably an hours of exposure situation. So is it happening more because of how we are training kids? Probably not. I think they are training harder now so there are more times that they can tear it, but it isn’t because they are training more that they are tearing it. It is just a by-product that they are being in the situation to have it happen more.
You walk along the cliff once, it isn’t as likely that you fall off. You walk around the cliff to and from work every day, then you increase the chances that a strong wind comes along and knocks you off. Same situation.
AK: So when those parents coming around asking if their kids are at a higher risk, it is not necessarily that they are at a higher risk, they are just exposing the kids to that risk a lot more?
PE: For sure, now clearly there are kids that fall into a category of a higher risk. I can take a look at you and your movement patterns and say you are at a higher risk. How they land, how they control themselves in space, you can just tell they are a higher risk. That is what I do.
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