ACL Tear Can’t Keep Young Soccer Player Down

Stanford Kids’s pediatric orthopedic surgeons are identified for treating kids with open progress plates

“Elise tore her ACL two years in the past, and we didn’t even realize it,” says her mother, Brooke Burkhardt.

When the damage occurred, Elise, then age 9, was enjoying soccer at camp. She landed humorous after a kick. There was no massive, dramatic second like a collision with one other participant or a fall.

ACL tears was once extra of an older teen or grownup damage. Not anymore.

“ACL tears have gotten more and more frequent in kids. Twenty years in the past, they had been uncommon. Immediately, my staff and I carry out the surgical procedure a number of occasions per week on kids as younger as 5 years outdated,” says Kevin Shea, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and director of the Sports Medicine program at Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being.

Elise continued to play soccer with on-and-off knee ache. Her physician thought she might need a stress fracture, and he or she obtained bodily remedy. So when she walked off the soccer discipline throughout a recreation a 12 months in the past, her dad and mom knew one thing was critically improper.

“We had been shocked. Elise has quite a lot of grit, and he or she by no means offers up,” says Brooke. “She just isn’t afraid to push by ache—she even performed with pneumonia as soon as.”

An MRI revealed a longstanding ACL tear. The Burkhardts had bother discovering an orthopedic surgeon keen to function on Elise as a result of her progress plates had been nonetheless open. Progress plates are cartilage on the finish of huge bones. As a baby grows, the cartilage turns into bone—often within the mid-teens. Earlier than that, progress plates are smooth and will be broken.  

Discovering an orthopedic surgeon to carry out ACL surgical procedure with open progress plates

“We would have liked to seek out somebody who may carry out the surgical procedure with out danger to her rising physique,” Brooke says. “Once we met Dr. Shea, we had quick confidence. We scheduled surgical procedure on the spot.”

At Stanford Kids’s, Dr. Shea, Molly Meadows, MD, and Charles Chan, MD, specialise in performing surgical procedures on younger athletes with open progress plates. They’ve a robust fame for expertly dealing with these tough surgical procedures.

“In youthful children, each joint of their physique has an open progress plate,” Dr. Shea says. “We now have to carry out surgical procedure in a different way and be very cautious to not have an effect on progress plates; in any other case it will possibly change how bones develop.”

The docs are concerned in intensive analysis on open progress plates with a number of facilities the world over. The analysis group combines knowledge on surgical methods and outcomes, creating a robust database for seeing developments in joint accidents and surgical procedures of the ACL, meniscus, and shoulder.

“Taking part on this analysis offers us confidence to soundly carry out growth-plate-sparing surgical procedures on very younger kids,” Dr. Shea says.   

The household was grateful to discover a surgeon who actually listened and didn’t brush apart their issues.

“It was a terrific aid discovering Dr. Shea and coming to Stanford Kids’s,” Brooke says.    

Elise’s ACL surgery went simply as deliberate, and he or she began the lengthy highway of restoration.

Selecting Stanford Kids’s for bodily remedy

Elise’s dad had lately had ACL reconstruction, so he absolutely understood what Elise was going by and inspired her alongside the best way. He additionally insisted that she obtain bodily remedy from the Stanford Kids’s Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy program, although it wasn’t near residence.

The household endured a 40-minute to 1.5-hour drive from Morgan Hill to Sunnyvale twice per week, as a result of they wished Elise to have the excellent care that the Stanford Kids’s Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center gives younger athletes.

“We might select the drive once more, regardless of the early mornings and being in bumper-to-bumper visitors. It was value it,” Brooke says.

Elise was in bodily remedy for somewhat over 10 months. A common bodily remedy stint after an ACL surgical procedure is about 12 to fifteen months, so the household credit Dr. Shea for performing an knowledgeable surgical procedure, Sarah Anderson, PT, DPT, for serving to Elise efficiently progress by remedy at a very good but secure tempo, and the high-tech Motion Analysis and Sports Performance Laboratory for serving to Elise return to sport early.

“I’ve entry to distinctive assets for my sufferers,” Dr. Shea says. “We now have the very newest expertise, corresponding to our progressive rapid MRI for 4-D photos of the knee and ankle and our cutting-edge Movement Lab. And our sports physical therapists are world-class.”

The Movement Lab’s superior tools offers exact measurements of a kid’s joint movement and performance. The expertise consists of 3-D movement seize that’s similar to what’s utilized in film and online game studios. Motion knowledge paired with drive platforms and a totally instrumented treadmill permits the lab workers to research the physics of how every limb strikes, bringing to focus a affected person’s progress in a means that’s unimaginable to see with the bare eye. There are only a few labs prefer it on the West Coast.

“We will measure how a lot every joint is being utilized and see when an athlete is compensating some other place of their physique, even when it’s refined,” says Jeff Morgan, ATC, the lab’s biomechanist.

Catching compensation patterns (e.g., placing extra weight on one leg to guard the opposite), and correcting them, typically means much less probability of a repeat damage. Elise’s take a look at confirmed that her knee was working effectively and taking an equal distribution of the load when operating and leaping.

Throughout her restoration, Elise had a couple of setbacks. She wanted a second surgical procedure from Dr. Shea on her different knee to take away scar tissue, and he or she additionally had debilitating heel ache. At one level, her mother instructed that she may surrender soccer, since she was going by a lot. Elise refused.

“Regardless of the additional setbacks, Elise was launched to return to sport early. That was spectacular. She did remarkably effectively,” says Deborah Callahan, ATC, athletic coach with the Movement Lab.

Again to enjoying with full energy

Elise is again on the sphere, enjoying soccer with zero restrictions. She performs midfield for the Almaden Futbol Membership in San Jose, an elite soccer membership that competes nationally, and he or she lately accepted a proposal to affix the membership’s Women Academy staff for the 2025–2026 season.

“Elise was a targeted, motivated affected person, and her household’s steadfast dedication was massively necessary for her restoration,” Dr. Shea says. “We had been honored to assist her return absolutely to sport.”

Elise obtained psychological well being assist from former Bay FC and Stanford College soccer star Maya Doms, who served as her mentor by a corporation referred to as Feminine Footballers. Maya helped Elise regain confidence after her damage. Working with a star soccer participant from Stanford was a full-circle second for Elise.     

Immediately, she completely trusts her knee to carry out.

“It feels actually good to return to soccer,” says Elise. “My knee is best than it has been in two years.”