NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The percentages of boys and girls who return to competitive basketball or soccer after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair are similar, according to study findings presented Wednesday at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in Las Vegas.

Another key finding was that the time patients returned to full sports was not a predictor of repeat injury.

Others studies have examined gender differences in returning to sports activities after ACL reconstruction, lead author Dr. K. Donald Shelbourne told Reuters Health, but they have included all sports and patients of all ages.

“Our study,” said Dr. Shelbourne, from the Shelbourne Knee Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, “specifically looked at school-aged boys and girls in basketball and soccer. The mean age in our study was 15 years. This age group in the sports of basketball and soccer is the highest risk group for ACL injuries, and the athletes at this age are extremely motivated to return to sports quickly.”

The study featured 413 consecutive subjects who were younger than 17 years of age at the time of ACL reconstruction for an injury sustained while competing in basketball or soccer. Follow-up data were available for 402 subjects (97%), including 242 girls and 58 boys in basketball and 77 girls and 25 boys in soccer.

In basketball athletes, the percentage of boys and girls who returned to compete in high-school basketball was identical, 87%. The average time to full participation after surgery was roughly 5.2 months in both groups. Twenty-one percent of girls and 17% of boys went on to compete in basketball in college.

For soccer, more girls returned to compete in high school soccer than boys, but the difference was not statistically significant: 93% vs. 80%. The average time to full participation was 5.1 months in both groups. Thirty-three percent of women and 24% of men would later compete in soccer in college.

Dr. Shelbourne’s group found that “the time to return to full sports was not a significant factor related to the incidence of any subsequent ACL injury to either knee after surgery. So, patients who returned to full sports at 3 to 4 months did not have a higher incidence of injury than patients who did not return until after 6 months.”

The take-home message for patients and clinicians is that “boys and girls can return to basketball and soccer at the same level and rate after ACL reconstruction. The subsequent injury rate in these young athletes in high-risk sports is 10% to 16%, but the time to full return is not a factor for re-injury.”