title: Knee functions and a return to sports activity in competitive athletes following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
abstract: We investigated knee functions and a return to sports in 50 competitive athlete patients treated with arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using double-looped STG augmented by woven polyester at a 1-year follow-up. There were 25 males and 25 females with a mean age of 24.3 years (range: 19-39 years). The majority of preinjury sports were basketball, volleyball and soccer. Athletic rehabilitation including agility training and sports-specific training was started at 12 weeks. Fourty patients (80%) was rated as normal or nearly normal on the assessment of International Knee Documentation Commitee postoperatively. Fourty-eight patients (96%) obtained full range of motion, and the mean quadriceps muscle strength of the injured side was 91.3%of that of the uninjured side. As for a return to sports, 46 patients (92%) were able to do fully competitive sports at a mean of 8.1 postoperative months. These results suggest that arthroscopic reconstruction using augmented double-looped STG allows early athletic rehabilitation, and lead satisfactory outcome as well as a reliable and early return to preinjury level of sport activity for the majority of the competitive athlete patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shirai
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Narita
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D001182:Arthroscopy; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007717:Knee / Q000502:physiology*; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures