Functional Recovery After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Longitudinal Perspective

Abstract Hopper DM, Strauss GR, Boyle JJ, Bell J. Functional recovery after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a longitudinal perspective. Objective To evaluate functional hop performance in subjects with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with a bone-patellar tendon-bone graft during 12, 18, 26, 39, and 52 weeks. Design A longitudinal comparative study. Setting University research laboratory. Participants Patients (N=19) were evaluated at 12, 18, 26, 39, and 52 weeks after ACL reconstruction surgery. Intervention Testing on 5 separate occasions. Main Outcome Measures The Cincinnati Knee Rating System and analog scales, the 6-meter timed hop, crossover hop, stair hop, and vertical hop, and limb symmetry indices. Results The uninjured and injured legs and test order were randomized. There was a significant test occasion main effect for both the Cincinnati and analog scores ( P =.001). Subjective rating scores improved over the 5 testing occasions. For all 4 hop tests, test occasion and limb main effects were significant ( P =.001). Paired t test comparisons at each testing occasion indicated a significant difference between the reconstructed and uninjured limb ( P