title: Motor recovery after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Analyses of gait and the ascent and descent of stairs.
abstract: We studied motor recovery as shown by locomotor activities after arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomies in seventeen men who were twenty-five to forty-nine years old. The patients were evaluated before the operation and two, four, and eight weeks after the operation. Control values were obtained from twenty-two healthy men whose ages, weights, and heights were similar to those of the patients who had had a meniscectomy. Motion of the hip, knee, and ankle in the sagittal plane and the electromyographic activities (as measured with surface electrodes) in five muscles were recorded while each subject walked on a level walkway and then ascended and descended stairs at free speeds. The results showed that meniscal tears affect the motor-control mechanisms involved in the submaximum locomotor activities that were studied and that these abnormalities may persist for as long as eight weeks after a meniscectomy.
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology Research Center, Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus, Québec.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Malouin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bravo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001182:Arthroscopy; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009132:Muscles / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology