Sterling Ridge is the premiere
orthopaedics center in the woodlands!

Physical Therapy

Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) Program

Hours of Operation
Monday-Thursday: 7:00am – 6:30pm
Friday: 7:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday: 8:00am – 1:00pm

“AN OUNCE OF PREVENTlON IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE”

At Sterling Ridge Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine, it is our belief that the foundation of
good health care is education. In addition to providing outstanding orthopaedic treatment,
we understand the importance of teaching our patients about their injuries and how to prevent
recurrences in the future.

A major injury that continues to plague athletes, particularly female athletes, is the anterior
cruciate ligament (ACL) injury of the knee. An ACL tear is a season ending injury that
commonly leads to arthroscopic ligament reconstruction to regain proper knee function. It is
estimated that 100,000 to 250,000 ACL injuries occur each year, and approximately 100,000
ACL injuries undergo surgical reconstruction. Of concern to parents is that more than 50%
of these injuries occur in young athletes 15 to 25 years of age. Although ACL reconstruction,
utilizing current surgical techniques, is over 95% successful in stabilizing the knee joint for
proper biomechanical function, there are concerns of early arthritis despite operative or non
operative management. Therefore, would it not be beneficial to find methods to decrease the risk
of this knee injury in the first place.

Through the work of many talented orthopaedic sports medicine doctors, physical therapists,
and athletic trainers, factors that predispose athletes to ACL injuries have been identified. By
understanding what puts an athlete at risk for an ACL tear has allowed researchers to create
programs that decrease the risk of this injury. Currently, there are several ACL injury prevention
programs, focusing on neuromuscular training, that have been proven to be successful in
significantly decreasing the risk of ACL rupture in athletes who participate in a variety of sports.

Sterling Ridge Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine offers an ACL prevention program called the
PEP Program (Prevent injury and Enhance Performance). The PEP program, which focuses on
neuromuscular and joint position training, was originally designed under the leadership of the
current U.S. national soccer team physician, Dr. Mandelbaum, and has been show to decrease the
incidence of ACL injury by 60%-80% at all levels of competition.

Dr. Hayes, Dr. Johnson and our physical therapists make the program available to
the local coaches, athletic trainers and physical therapists in The Woodlands in order to prepare
our young athletes for safe competition utilizing the PEP program and conditioning.

For more information on ACL injury prevention, see the following web sites:
aclprevent.com or aafla.org