Brief summary, from the abstract
This scoping review found that athletes who tear their ACL appear to lean more on vision to stay balanced, though the pattern differs by treatment: ACL-deficient patients show clear balance deficits when their eyes are closed, while in ACL-reconstructed patients the problem mostly surfaces when a thinking task is added on top of the visual challenge.
- The review synthesized 23 studies: 7 (31%) in ACL-deficient patients, 15 (65%) in ACL-reconstructed patients, and 1 (4%) in both.
- Most studies of ACL-deficient patients showed worse postural stability with eyes closed versus uninjured controls, suggesting greater reliance on vision; complete visual obstruction (eyes closed or blindfolded) was the most common assessment method (52%).
- In ACL-reconstructed patients, adding a visual-cognitive challenge produced significantly worse postural stability than in controls, whereas plain eyes-closed testing was less revealing.
- This is a qualitative scoping review, so it maps the evidence rather than pooling effect sizes; the authors note the evidence for visual reliance was weaker in reconstructed than in deficient knees.
Clinically assessing this area? See the knee special tests.