Why to repair a young athlete's knee asap

This sobering advice from a University of Pennsylvania study:

Young kids who injure their knees so badly that ACL surgery is needed should strongly consider having their repairs asap. This despite the fact that such operations, when performed on youth athletes, can disrupt normal bone growth.

Kids whose operations were delayed more than 12 weeks faced multiple risks, including:

- about a four-fold increase in irreparable medial meniscus tears.
- an 11-fold increase in lateral compartment chondral injuries.
- a three-fold increase in patellotrochlear injuries.

More on the study here.