Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is the most common knee injury among athletes, and can result in long-term complications and career-ending conditions for sportspeople. There is no consensus in the literature on the effectiveness of rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction, or the best protocol to follow for functional outcome improvement.
Objective: To determine the impact of an accelerated rehabilitation protocol on knee functional outcomes in amateur athletes with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).
Design: Two-arm, parallel-group randomized comparative design.
Patients: A total of 100 amateur male athletes (mean age 22.01 ± 1.79 years) with ACLR were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n = 50/group).
Methods: An accelerated rehabilitation protocol and a conventional rehabilitation protocol were used for the experimental group. In contrast, only the conventional rehabilitation protocol was used for the control group. The rehabilitation was delivered in 5 weekly sessions for 22 weeks. The primary outcome measure, knee pain, was measured using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Extensive test batteries, for hop tests, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and knee effusion, were measured, aiming to add more objective criteria to determine functional performance.
Results: Both groups (n = 50/group) were well-matched (p = 0.816), with insignificant differences in their demographic characteristics (p > 0.05). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test showed no significant difference between the 2 groups (p = 0.781) at baseline. A 2-way MANOVA (2 × 2 MANOVA) of within- and between-group variations indicated overall significant treatment, time, and treatment × time interaction effects (p < 0.001) in favour of the accelerated rehabilitation group.
Conclusion: The accelerated rehabilitation protocol was more effective in improving functional outcomes than a conventional rehabilitation protocol in amateur athletes with ACLR.