Retrospective cohort study of 237 prepubescent children (Tanner stage 1–2, mean age 11.2 years) who underwent physeal-sparing ACL reconstruction using IT band autograft at Boston Children's Hospital over 23 years, evaluating stability, functional outcomes, graft rupture rate, growth disturbance, and harvest-site morbidity at mean 6.2-year follow-up.
In a skeletally immature prepubescent child (Tanner 1–2) with a complete ACL tear, physeal-sparing IT band autograft reconstruction avoids growth disturbance entirely while delivering durable stability — counsel families that the lateral thigh harvest site will look asymmetric in nearly half of patients, but this is cosmetic rather than functional in the vast majority.
Retrospective cohort study of 237 prepubescent children (Tanner stage 1–2, mean age 11.2 years) who underwent physeal-sparing ACL reconstruction using IT band autograft at Boston Children's Hospital over 23 years, evaluating stability, functional outcomes, graft rupture rate, growth disturbance, and harvest-site morbidity at mean 6.2-year follow-up.
In a skeletally immature prepubescent child (Tanner 1–2) with a complete ACL tear, physeal-sparing IT band autograft reconstruction avoids growth disturbance entirely while delivering durable stability — counsel families that the lateral thigh harvest site will look asymmetric in nearly half of patients, but this is cosmetic rather than functional in the vast majority.