Measuring functional recovery of athletes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Summary:

Many athletes with an anterior cruciate ligament tear do not return to their original sport level after reconstruction, in spite of good results on clinical tests. After an anterior cruciate ligament tear, propriocepsis of the knee joint is shown to be decreased. This leads to switching over to compensatory mechanisms, such as cognitive and visual motor control, which are not automated. A decrease in dependency on cognitive and visual motor control indicates restoration of propriocepsis and thereby functional recovery. This dependency is measurable by performing a cognitive task and reducing visual information during a motor task. A balance task and a sprinting task are developed that have been performed together with a cognitive task and visual constraints. The dependency on cognitive and visual motor control of healthy athletes is shown to be measurable for both motor tasks. These tasks are performed several times during rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction to determine the amount of dependency on cognitive and visual motor control.