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Adolescent athletes show asymmetric function in knee after ACL reconstruction
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Adolescent athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction showed a decreased vertical ground force in their operated limb after surgery, which researchers cited as potential factor for reinjury when returning to sport, according to this study.
“Adolescent patients 6 months after ACL reconstruction demonstrated significant kinematic and kinetic asymmetries between the surgical and nonsurgical limbs,” Boyi Dai, PhD, and colleagues stated in the study abstract. “The limb asymmetries persisted when the patients were wearing a functional knee brace. There were changes in the surgical knee kinematics with and without bracing, especially near initial ground contact.”
During both braced and nonbraced tests, patients showed a decreased vertical ground force, peak knee extension movement, knee flexion angle at peak knee flexion velocity as well as peak knee flexion angle and velocity compared with their operated knee, according to the abstract.
While bracing increased the initial knee flexion velocity, it also decreased the initial knee flexion angle, according to the abstract. However, bracing did not decrease asymmetry between operated and nonoperated knees.
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