Gait disturbances in football, rugby players and skiers following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Abstract

Background. Patients who have undergone anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery may exhibit post-operative lower limb gait disturbances. Design. Laboratory in vivo controlled study. Kinematics and kinetics parameters of knee motion were measured in post-ACL reconstruction participants (n = 5; m = 4 / f = 1, age 30.6 years, height 179.2 cm, weight 80.4 kg) and control participants (n = 10; m = 6 / f = 4, age 30.3 years, height 173.5 cm, weight 65.3 kg). Kinematics and kinetics were recorded for normal gait, ‘cutting’ gait and ‘weaving’ gait (ẋ = 3 per gait type) using instrumented motion analysis and ground embedded force plates. Between groups, differences in knee joint alignment were determined in the frontal plane for normal gait,and in the coronal plane for cutting and weaving. Five of the subjects were recruited for this study had an ACL reconstruction in the past (at least two years before the test), and ten were part of a control group. Each subject performed three different tasks with both legs on a force plate: normal walking, a weaving movement, and a cutting movement. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected with four optoelectronic cameras and two force plates. Comparisons were made in the frontal plane for walking and in the coronal plane for cutting and weaving between the reconstructed knee and the contralateral, healthy knee in the late stance period. Results. There were no significant differences between the ACL reconstructed knees and the contralateral healthy knees in the walking task (p = 0.27 – 0.49). Knee coronal plane rotation showed between group similarity(cutting = 21.82° vs 11.29°, p = 0.175; weaving = 17.88 vs 21.34°, p = 0.406). Conclusions. There is an increased rotation of the knee during walking and cutting in ACL reconstructed knees when compared to the contralateral knee, although this difference was not statistically significant.