Accelerometer-based rehabilitation may improve recovery outcomes after ACL surgery
Key takeaways:
- Accelerometer-based rehabilitation may improve recovery outcomes at 1 year after ACL reconstruction.
- Use of an accelerometer to track postoperative activity levels may be preferred vs. self-tracking.
Published results showed use of an accelerometer to track physical activity after ACL reconstruction may be associated with improved recovery outcomes compared with traditional patient-reported tracking.
“Our study found that physical activity levels measured by these devices correlated with traditional patient-reported outcomes, highlighting the potential of wearable accelerometers in tracking recovery after ACL reconstruction and other orthopedic surgeries,” Tim Dwyer, MBBS, PhD, associate professor of orthopedics at the University of Toronto, told Healio.
Dwyer, Prabjit Ajrawat, MSc, and colleagues performed a prospective cohort study of 28 patients (mean age, 30.2 years) who underwent primary ACL reconstruction. Among the cohort, 20 patients were available at 1-year follow-up, and 18 patients were included in the final analysis.
Dwyer and colleagues asked patients to wear the ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer (ActiGraph) for 24 hours per day for 7 consecutive days at 3-, 6- and 12-month postoperative intervals. The accelerometer tracked raw acceleration, step count, energy expenditure, metabolic equivalent (MET) rates, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and total wear time.
Accelerometer-based outcome measures included MVPA minutes per week, MET minutes per week and average daily step count. Patient-reported outcome measures included the Tegner activity scale, Marx activity scale, International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), KOOS and EuroQoL-5D.
Dwyer and colleagues found the use of the accelerometer was associated with improvements in MVPA minutes per week, MET minutes per week and average daily step count. Mean levels of MVPA minutes per week were 372.6 at 3 months, 340.7 at 6 months and 408 at 12 months. Researchers also found mean total MET minutes per week were 6,729 at 3 months, 6,350 at 6 months and 6,842 at 12 months and average daily step counts were 7,993.5 at 3 months, 7,717 at 6 months and 8,369 at 12 months. However, Dwyer and colleagues noted these improvements were not statistically significant from preoperatively to 12 months postoperatively.
Dwyer and colleagues found patients had significant improvements in Tegner, KOOS and IPAQ-SF scores at final follow-up.
“As technology improves, using wearable technology to measure daily activity can be incorporated into improving patient recovery and assessing patient outcomes after surgery,” Dwyer said.
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