The primary benefits of anterior cruciate ligament repair are easy to see: Patients regain function, return to activity, and reduce future pain and damage. Secondarily, however, the surgery accounts for $10.1 billion in savings in the U.S. each year, according to a recent study.

For the study, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, researchers compared the costs of surgical treatment and non-surgical rehabilitation, including medical care, lost wages and disability payments, in order to quantify the socio-economic impact of the approximately 200,000 ACL injuries that occur each year.

All in all, they calculated an "average lifetime societal benefit" of $50,000 per ACL reconstruction surgery patient, which would mean $10.1 billion in savings per year in the U.S., a valuable factor to consider in discussions of healthcare cost-containment.

"This is the first study to demonstrate the importance of a societal perspective when considering the costs and benefits of ACL repair and policies that will affect access to this procedure," says healthcare economist Lane Koenig, PhD, who co-authored the study with a team of sports medicine physicians from across the nation.

David Bernard