Goals of ACL Surgery: Avoid Arthritic Changes and Need for More Surgery

ACL tears occur in a variety of sports, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, and require surgical repair as soon as possible to avoid the arthritic changes associated with a delay in reconstructive surgery and, hopefully, the need for more surgery later.  While a failure rate of 20% is not uncommon, the failure rate at Children's is much lower, around 5%.