The 2026 annual conference of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recently concluded in New Orleans, Louisiana. The five-day conference featured educational sessions and insightful research presentations from medical experts throughout the orthopaedic community.

Today, we have a curated selection of poster presentations on sports medicine topics. Some descriptions and conclusions were edited for clarity and brevity. Individuals interested in viewing the complete AAOS 2026 Annual Meeting poster archive can visit the AAOS education archives where conference research is presented by year.

AAOS 2026 Sports Medicine Posters

Long-Term Outcomes in Elite Athletes Following Primary Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome: A Propensity-Matched, Sex-Based Analysis at 10-Year Follow-Up

  • Description: Elite athletes (EA), defined as collegiate or professional athletes, undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome achieve significant improvements at mid-term follow-up. However, there is a paucity of literature on long-term outcomes in this population. 
  • Conclusion: Despite EAs demonstrating higher scores for certain patient-reported outcome scores at two-, five-, and 10-years, the most significant findings of this study were that EAs and non-EAs demonstrated comparable clinically significant outcomes and reoperation-free survivorship at long-term follow-up. Additionally, elite male and female athletes demonstrated comparable 10-year patient-reported outcome scores, except for hip outcome score sports subscale. These differences in patient-reported outcome scores between EAs and non-EAs may be indicative of possible improved recovery facilitated by their prior experience in the training room, comfort with rehabilitation protocols, or a self-willingness to believe in their improvement when responding to patient-reported outcome scores.

Return to Sport After Posterior Horn Root Repiar in Competitive Athletes

  • Description: The purpose was to report clinical and functional outcomes, including patient reported outcome measures and return to sport data, in competitive athletes who underwent posterior horn root repair (PHRR) at minimum 2-year follow-up.
  • Conclusion: Competitive athletes who underwent PHRR demonstrated satisfactory post-operative outcomes at minimum two-year follow-up despite a high rate of concomitant procedures. Most patients were able to return to sport, although less than half did so at the prior level.

The Impact of the Pitch Clock on UCL Surgery Rates and Performance in Major League Baseball Pitchers

  • Description: Major League Baseball (MLB) recently implemented a new pitch clock in 2023, raising debate on whether it has impacted injuries in pitchers. Season to season surgery trends were evaluated and a retrospective case-control analysis was conducted on all MLB pitchers who underwent UCL surgery from the beginning of the 2018 season to the end of the 2024 season.
  • Conclusion: Overall, this preliminary study suggests that the newly implemented pitch clock may not increase the overall rate of UCL surgeries in MLB pitchers. However, there's been a significant increase in the percentage of starting versus relief pitchers undergoing UCL surgery since the inception of the pitch clock. Reassuringly, the pitch clock also did not have a concerning impact on pitching performance in MLB pitchers.

Enhancing the Readability of Sports Medicine Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Using ChatGPT 4.0: A Quality Assessment of 26 Common Instruments

  • Description: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are essential in sports medicine, offering insight into pain, function, and recovery. However, many PROMs exceed the average U.S. adult reading level, potentially limiting their utility—particularly among underserved populations. With only 12% of Americans demonstrating proficient health literacy, simplifying PROMs is a critical step toward improving patient comprehension and data accuracy.
  • Conclusion: While promising as a first-pass tool for simplifying health communication, over half of the revised PROMs introduced content-altering errors. Expert review remains essential before clinical adoption.

Radiographic Incidence of Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Following ACL Injuries: A Computer Vision Analysis of Kellgren-Lawrence Grade and Minimum Joint Space Width

  • Description: The incidence of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) at a minimum of 90 months following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is not well-defined; furthermore, robust comparisons of the incidence between nonoperative management and reconstruction remain sparse.
  • Conclusion: Compared to patients undergoing ACL reconstruction, patients treated nonoperatively demonstrated significantly decreased mJSW in both the injured and the uninjured contralateral knee at 7.5 years follow-up. The incidence of clinical radiographic PTOA after ACL injury based on differences of ≥1mm mJSW compared to the contralateral uninjured knee was 25.3% in the ACL reconstruction cohort and 39.0% in the nonoperative cohort.

Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Autograft Associated with Higher Rates of Long-Term Osteoarthritis Compared to Hamstring Autograft after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review

  • Description: Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA) remains a persistent problem following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) despite successful short-term outcomes. Data comparing long-term development of OA based on ACLR graft type is lacking. 
  • Conclusion: Compared to bone-patellar tendon-bone autografts, hamstring autografts are associated with a significantly lower rate of radiographic OA 10 and 15 years after ACLR. These results emphasize the importance of surgeons weighing both short- and long-term factors when counseling patients on graft type for ACLR and suggest that patients undergoing ACLR with a bone-patellar tendon-bone graft should be cautioned regarding a higher long-term risk of OA relative to other graft types.

Larger Lateral Femoral Condyle to Lateral Tibial Plateau Ratios are Highly Predictive of Primary ACL Tears and ACL Reconstruction Failures

  • Description: Distal femoral morphometric characteristics may influence anterior cruciate ligament injury risk and reconstruction failure. The purpose of this study was to compare femoral parameters including notch width, condyle width, notch width index, lateral femoral condyle ratio, and lateral femoral-tibial anterior to posterior ratio (LFTap) among patients with an intact ACL, primary anterior cruciate ligament tear, or anterior cruciate ligament revision.
  • Conclusion: LFTap was the strongest predictor of both primary anterior cruciate ligament injury and revision. Specifically, a disproportionately larger anterior–posterior dimension of the lateral femoral condyle relative to the lateral tibial plateau significantly increased the likelihood of primary rupture and subsequent graft failure.

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