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Trends of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in children and young adolescents in Italy show a constant increase in the last 15 years

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Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this 15-year nationwide study was to investigate the trend in ACL reconstructive surgeries in patients younger than 15 years old in Italy, as well as their social and economic impact.

Materials and methods

The National Hospital Discharge records (SDO) collected by the Italian Ministry of Health in the 15-year period between 2001 and 2015 were analyzed. This contains anonymous data including patients’ age, gender, ICD-9-CM codes for diagnosis and intervention, census region, region of hospitalization, length of the hospitalization, and public or private reimbursement.

Results

1,350 ACL reconstructions were performed in Italy in the population younger than 15 years old, with an incidence rate ranging from 0.16 to 2.04 procedures per 100,000 age-matched individuals. Similarly, the percentage of surgeries in 0–14 year old patients increased with respect to the total number of ACL reconstruction from 0.13% in 2001 to 0.95% in 2015. The age range 10–14 years is the most involved, accounting for 97.3% of surgeries recorded in the study period. The male:female ratio was 1.05 and most of these procedures were performed in the North of Italy (78.3%).

Conclusion

ACL reconstructions in patients aged 10–14 years are increasing constantly since 2001, and thus, specific actions aimed to define the best management strategy as well as national educational programs to prepare the future surgeons to this new reality are mandatory in the interest of the public health.

Level of evidence

Level III.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Direzione Generale della Programmazione Sanitaria–Banca Dati SDO of the Italian Ministry of Health for the support in providing data for this research.

Funding

No authors reported receiving funding for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128, Trigoria, Rome, Italy

    Umile Giuseppe Longo, Giuseppe Salvatore, Laura Risi Ambrogioni, Vincenzo Candela & Vincenzo Denaro

  2. Bambin Gesù Pediatric Hospital, Rome, Italy

    Laura Ruzzini

  3. IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, via Riccardo Galeazzi 4, 20161, Milan, Italy

    Laura de Girolamo, Marco Viganò & Francesca Facchini

  4. Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy

    Eleonora Cella & Massimo Ciccozzi

Authors
  1. Umile Giuseppe Longo
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  2. Giuseppe Salvatore
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  3. Laura Ruzzini
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  4. Laura Risi Ambrogioni
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  5. Laura de Girolamo
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  7. Francesca Facchini
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  8. Eleonora Cella
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  9. Vincenzo Candela
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  10. Massimo Ciccozzi
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  11. Vincenzo Denaro
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Correspondence to Umile Giuseppe Longo.

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Longo, U.G., Salvatore, G., Ruzzini, L. et al. Trends of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in children and young adolescents in Italy show a constant increase in the last 15 years. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 29, 1728–1733 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-020-06203-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-020-06203-1

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