20/10/2026
Ottawa, Ontario — Tuesday October 20, 2026
When a young person is recovering from a knee injury, it’s important for care providers to know when their knee is ready to return to sports and other activities. But many assessments rely on research done in adults, which may not reflect the true recovery benchmarks for adolescents.
“What we know about adult knees may not apply the same to teenagers. Adolescent-specific reference points can help us study recovery more accurately and better understand when a young person may be ready to return to activity.” – Sasha Carsen
To establish new adolescent-specific reference points, a new study led by CHEO Research Institute Scientist Sasha Carsen and Daniel Benoit at Lund University in Sweden, measured knee strength, endurance, and fatigue in 100 healthy adolescents aged 10 to 18.
Their team, including Blake Miller in Ottawa and Nick Ryan in Sweden, found that performance varied based on sex, and dominant leg when considering peak strength or muscular endurance exercises. Adolescent females showed greater fatigue than males during the endurance tests– a difference from patterns often seen in adults, reinforcing the need for research focused specifically on teens. These new endurance tests also uncovered differences between legs that short strength tests did not detect.
Their findings provide benchmark criteria on healthy adolescent that can be used to help inform future studies of teens with knee injuries, including ACL tears.
Researchers can now explore whether assessments based on these new benchmarks could provide a more complete picture of recovery and support more personalized return-to-activity decisions.