title: Assessment of Gait Symmetry Improvements in National Athletes after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction during Rehabilitation.
abstract: This study aimed to quantify changes in gait parameters and their symmetries among athletes with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions during a rehabilitation program. Twenty-two national players with ACL reconstructions and 15 healthy athletes were recruited. The gait data were collected between postoperative weeks 4-5, 8-9 and 12-13 using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The spatio-temporal gait parameters and symmetry indexes (SIs) were evaluated for the patients and the control group. One-way and repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The results demonstrated significant differences among spatio-temporal (P<0.001) and SIs (P=0.007) of patients for Test 1 and the control group. Repeated measure analysis revealed significant changes in the linear combinations of spatio-temporal gait variables (P=0.002) and SIs (P=0.043) over time. The injured limb's step length, cadence and weight acceptance time presented significant improvement across time (P<0.001). Moreover, the SI of the stance time was reduced significantly by 46.48% (P=0.004) among SI parameters. After three months, no significant differences were found between patients and healthy controls for the measured gait components (P>0.05). The rehabilitation program allowed national athletes to restore symmetry in spatio-temporal gait parameters toward the control group's range 12-13 weeks post-reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sport Studies, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Sport Studies, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amri
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Roohi
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mohafez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D000070598:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D059549:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D056352:Athletes; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020127:Recovery of Function; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult