Dr. Nirav Pandya: ACL tears in teen girls

March 23, 2026

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Dr. Nirav Pandya: Desgarros del LCA en muchachas adolescentes

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High school girls are three to six times likelier than boys to experience a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), and rates of ACL tears in this group recently jumped 32 percent in 15 years. On March 23, 2026, SciLine interviewed Dr. Nirav Pandya, a professor of pediatric orthopedics and sports medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

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ANCHOR
ANYONE WHO WATCHES SPORTS… KNOWS THAT A TORN A-C-L… CAN SIDELINE AN ATHLETE FOR UP TO A YEAR… OR EVEN LONGER.
BUT THIS DEVESTATING INJURY… DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN TO PROFESSIONALS.
IT’S ALSO ON THE RISE… AMONG SCHOOL-AGED ATHLETES… ESPECIALLY GIRLS.

VO
TEEN GIRLS ARE UP TO SIX TIMES LIKELIER THAN BOYS TO TEAR THEIR ACL… AND THE RATE OF THIS INJURY RECENTLY JUMPED… THIRTY-TWO PERCENT… IN FIFTEEN YEARS.
DOCTOR NIRAV PANDYA… SEES TEENS WITH THIS INJURY EVERY DAY… IN HIS WORK AS A SURGEON AND PROFESSOR… AT THE UNIVERTSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN FRANCISCO.
HE SAYS THAT A TORN A-C-L GENERALLY REQUIRES SURGERY… AND A LONG AND INTENSE RECOVERY PROCESS… AND THAT IT EVEN INCREASES THE RISK OF ARTHRITIS… LATER IN LIFE.
BUT HE SAYS THE RESEARCH IS CLEAR… AND SHOWS THAT THESE DEVESTATING INJURIES CAN ACTUALLY BE PREVENTED… WITH WORKOUTS FOCUSED ON CERTAIN SKILLS.

SOT
Duration: 0:29
Super: Dr. Nirav Pandya, professor and surgeon at Univesity of California – San Francisco
Working on developing your core strength and your flexibility and explosiveness, and those have actually been shown based on what study you look at, somewhere between 40 to 70% decrease in ACL injuries. They focus on strength, balance, and movement training, and they can be extremely effective in teaching these female athletes how to land properly. The problem is that a lot of clubs and these kind of the club entities just don’t do that maybe once a week. Maybe once every two weeks. But it’s extremely important to be able to prevent that risk in female athletes.

VO
DOCTOR PANDYA CALLED ON THOSE SPORTS CLUB COACHES… TO INCLUDE A-C-L TEAR PREVENTION WORKOUTS… FOR THEIR YOUNG ATHLETES… THREE TIMES A WEEK.
HE ALSO SAID THAT PARTICIPATING IN MULTIPLE SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES… INSTEAD OF SPECIALIZING IN JUST ONE SPORT LIKE SOCCER… CAN HELP KIDS AND TEENS PREVENT THIS INJURY.

Raw, full-length interview covers:

ACL tear basics, including what the ACL is, why tearing it almost always requires surgery and lengthy rehabilitation process, and long-term side effects such as pain and early-onset osteoarthritis;
Research on rising rates of ACL tears among young athletes, especially girls;
Factors that may increase the odds of tearing an ACL, including specializing in a single sport, playing on artificial turf, and having torn an ACL previously;
ACL prevention strategies for athletes—including warm-up exercises that can cut the risk of ACL tears by up to two thirds