Purpose: A functional test battery (FTB) has been proposed to evaluate the readiness of return to activity after ACLR. However, there is limited evidence documenting the usefulness of an FTB. Therefore, the purpose of the current investigation was to compare knee joint landing biomechanics asymmetry during double-leg jump landing (DLJL) and single-leg jump cutting (SLJC) between healthy females and ACLR females who pass (ACLR-pass) or fail (ACLR-fail) an FTB before and after the completion of a sustained exercise protocol.
Method: Eighteen ACLR females (ten ACLR-pass and eight ACLR-fail) and twelve healthy females performed an FTB including The 2000 International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form, the Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living Scale, quadriceps strength, and single-leg hop tests. DLJL and SLJC knee joint biomechanics asymmetry were measured before and after exercise.
Results: During DLJL, there were significant main effects of group on peak anterior tibial shear force (ATSF) asymmetry [F(2,27) = 3.86, p < 0.05, [Formula: see text] = 0.214] and peak vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) asymmetry [F(2,27) = 3.34, p = 0.05, [Formula: see text] = 0.198]. During SLJC, there was a significant group main effect for peak ATSF asymmetry [F(2,27) = 3.494, p = 0.04, [Formula: see text] = 0.206].
Conclusion: ACLR-fail exhibited greater asymmetry in peak ATSF during DLJL and SLJC compared to healthy females. In addition, ACLR-pass exhibited greater asymmetry in peak ATSF and peak vGRF during DLJL and SLJC, respectively, compared to healthy females. However, ACLR-fail did not exhibit any significant differences in landing biomechanics asymmetry during either task compared with ACLR-pass. Furthermore, the completion of a sustained exercise protocol did not affect knee joint landing biomechanics asymmetry across groups.
Level of evidence: II.
Keywords: ACL reconstruction; Cutting; Functional test; Knee joint kinematics; Landing; Return to sport.