ACL Reconstruction Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Rise in healthcare and government expenditure: The aspect of Medicare spending on musculoskeletal procedures has deliberately increased, denoting a huge growth opportunity for the market globally. According to an article published by NLM in January 2023, the international number of prevalent musculoskeletal diseases has reached 1.3 billion, which has resulted in 121.3 thousand deaths, along with 138.7 million disability-adjusted life years. Besides, the healthcare spending for this disease in the U.S. has successfully reached USD 380.9 billion and €240 billion in Europe-based nations.
• Improvement in health and medical quality: The component of early ACL reconstruction, particularly for minimally invasive methods, has readily reduced hospitalization expenses, which positively impacts the market internationally. As per an article published by Health System Tracker in December 2024, the healthcare expenditure in the U.S. has effectively tripled to USD 4.9 trillion as of 2023, thereby denoting a 7.5% surge between 2022 and 2023, in comparison to 4.6% in 2022. Besides, the upliftment in overall health spending is also above the yearly rate, which is 4.1%, thus bolstering the market’s exposure.
• Expansion in the aging population and health accessibility: As per an article published by the World Health Organization in October 2024, 80% of elderly people will be residing in low- and middle-income nations by the end of 2050. Additionally, the world’s population will be more than 60 years old, which will double from 12% to 22% by 2050. Besides, as per the March 2024 NLM article, telehealth effectively constitutes an estimated 10% of overall outpatient clinic visits worldwide, which makes it a significant escalation in clinical services. Therefore, with all these factors, there is a massive growth opportunity for the market across different nations.

Increase Healthcare Spending Impacting the Market (2022)

Source: OECD

Total Number of Sports and Recreational Equipment Tools Leading to Sports Injuries (2024)

Source: NSC Organization

Challenges

• Increase in treatment expenses restricting government coverage: The market caters to surgeries, which makes it highly and extremely expensive to be poorly affordable by the majority of patients across low-income nations. Besides, a considerable number of people are actually eligible to achieve complete coverage under Medicare, owing to strong capped reimbursement rates and eligibility criteria. Therefore, these stringent accessibility requirements demand that individuals to reduce procedural volumes for suppliers relying on public payer systems. Meanwhile, the aspect of cost-to-access disparity continues to be a significant gap, especially for producers of high-end fixation devices and biologic grafts.
• Adoption and surgical training obstacles: The presence of advanced devices frequently demands surgical techniques, which have necessitated wide-ranging training programs for surgeons. Hospitals are usually reluctant to bear the expenses of the training for diminished theater productivity, particularly during a surgeon’s learning curve. This has created an effective adoption gap, since even a reimbursed product will not be utilized if surgeons are not proficient enough, which in turn can cause a hindrance in the market. Besides, manufacturers need to invest heavily in cadaver laboratories, proctoring services, and training centers to represent a non-recoverable and substantial expense.