Brief summary, from the abstract
In this randomised controlled trial, training the healthy, non-operative leg after ACL reconstruction (cross-education) slowed the loss of quadriceps strength in the operated leg at 10 weeks, but the benefit had disappeared by 24 weeks.
- 44 patients were split evenly, with 22 doing strength training of the non-operative limb (CE) and 22 doing a sham upper-limb stretching programme (CON).
- At 10 weeks, quadriceps peak force in the reconstructed limb dropped 16.6% with cross-education versus 32.0% in the control group, a significant difference.
- This advantage was not retained at 24 weeks, and there were no significant between-group differences in hop distance, rate of force development, or hamstring strength.
- Single randomised trial; inter-limb symmetry (0.78 to 0.89) did not differ between groups and may hide real performance differences.
Clinically assessing this area? See the knee special tests.