Abstract
Background:
Rehabilitation before anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR) is effective at improving postoperative outcomes at least in the short term. Less is known about the effects of preoperative rehabilitation on functional outcomes and return-to-sport (RTS) rates 2 years after reconstruction.
Purpose/Hypothesis:
The purpose of this study was to compare functional outcomes 2 years after ACLR in a cohort that underwent additional preoperative rehabilitation, including progressive strengthening and neuromuscular training after impairments were resolved, compared with a nonexperimental cohort. We hypothesized that the cohort treated with extended preoperative rehabilitation would have superior functional outcomes 2 years after ACLR.
Study Design:
Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.
Methods:
This study compared outcomes after an ACL rupture in an international cohort (Delaware-Oslo ACL Cohort [DOC]) treated with extended preoperative rehabilitation, including neuromuscular training, to data from the Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) cohort, which did not undergo extended preoperative rehabilitation. Inclusion and exclusion criteria from the DOC were applied to the MOON database to extract a homogeneous sample for comparison. Patients achieved knee impairment resolution before ACLR, and postoperative rehabilitation followed each cohort’s respective criterion-based protocol. Patients completed the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective knee form and Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) at enrollment and again 2 years after ACLR. RTS rates were calculated for each cohort at 2 years.
Results:
After adjusting for baseline IKDC and KOOS scores, the DOC patients showed significant and clinically meaningful differences in IKDC and KOOS scores 2 years after ACLR. There was a significantly higher (P < .001) percentage of DOC patients returning to preinjury sports (72%) compared with those in the MOON cohort (63%).
Conclusion:
The cohort treated with additional preoperative rehabilitation consisting of progressive strengthening and neuromuscular training, followed by a criterion-based postoperative rehabilitation program, had greater functional outcomes and RTS rates 2 years after ACLR. Preoperative rehabilitation should be considered as an addition to the standard of care to maximize functional outcomes after ACLR.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
