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Greater BMI may delay recovery of hamstring strength after ACL reconstruction in pediatric patients
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SAN DIEGO — Although pediatric patients who undergo ACL reconstruction can recover quadriceps and hamstring strength early, patients who are overweight or obese may experience a delay in hamstring recovery, according to results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
“What we found is that, in general, quadriceps and hamstring strength in pediatric patients can be recovered by 6 months after an ACL reconstruction; that overweight and obese patients do have a significantly longer time in hamstring recovery; and that concomitant injuries, even though they may play an early role, did not, in the end, play a significant role in delaying muscle recovery for our patients,” Rushyuan J. Lee, MD, said during his presentation.
Lee and colleagues categorized 330 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction into two groups based on their BMI percentile for age and sex. They compared the overweight and obese population to the normal-weight population. Lee noted muscle recovery was defined as greater than 85% peak torque in side-to-side comparison.
Results showed 60% of patients had quadriceps recovery and 70% of patients had hamstring recovery. Lee noted patients recovered quadriceps strength by 6.1 months and hamstring strength by 5.3 months. Although BMI did not play a statistically significant role in the recovery of quadriceps strength, according to Lee, patients who were overweight or obese had a longer recovery time for hamstring strength. According to the study abstract, recovery of hamstring muscle took a mean of 5.7 months in the obese and overweight group vs. 5.1 months in the normal-weight group.
“In terms of concomitant injuries, looking at meniscal, chondral and collateral ligament injuries, there was no statistically significant difference from whether or not you had vs. those who did not have these injuries when they recovered their muscle strength,” Lee said. – by Casey Tingle
Reference:
Gunderson M, et al. Paper #632. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. March 14-18, 2017; San Diego.
Disclosure: Lee reports no relevant financial disclosures.