Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists Launch Program To Prevent ACL Injury And Enhance Performance

Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics
Also Included In: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 22 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists, a national leader in orthopedic care for women, in collaboration with Sister Kenny Sports and Physical Therapy, launched the renowned Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) program to the local and regional market. PEP is an exercise and training program designed to significantly reduce the incidence of ACL injury and enhance performance as an added benefit.

Aimee S. Klapach, M.D. of the Women's Orthopaedic Center at Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists spearheaded the effort to bring the PEP program to the Twin Cities and region with the goal of educating and training high school and college-level athletes and their coaches and trainers. "The PEP program will have a tremendous impact in preventing debilitating ACL injuries for athletes of all ages and particularly female athletes who are more susceptible to ACL injury," said Klapach. "This program is proven to significantly reduce injury and provide the added benefit of improving performance."

Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists' surgeons, in collaboration with Sister Kenny Sports and Physical Therapy, will implement the PEP program with local and regional high school and collegiate athletic programs. More than 950 high school girl basketball players will participate in the PEP program during the Minnesota AAU Girls' Basketball Summer Jam June 19 - 21 in Bloomington.

The PEP program was designed in 1999 by a team of experts at the Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation. Results of this program were reported in a 2005 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine (AJSM), citing an 83% decrease of ACL injuries in the first year of implementing the PEP program among elite 14- to 18-year-old female club soccer players. The results of a more recent study of NCAA Division 1 female soccer players, published in the AJSM in 2008, confirm that female athletes were at significantly reduced risk of ACL injuries, particularly in non-contact sports, if they performed the PEP warm-up program three times a week over the course of a 12-week regular season.

For more information about the PEP program and ACL injury prevention, call Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists at 952/946-9777 or visit http://www.sportsandortho.com.

About Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists

Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists uses the most advanced sports medicine and orthopaedic practices, protocols, education and treatments to help patients get back in the game of life as fast as possible. Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists clinics are conveniently located in Edina, Minneapolis, Blaine, and St. Cloud, Minn.

Source
Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute