Brief summary, from the abstract
In Division I collegiate athletes, running biomechanics in the surgical knee had not returned to their own pre-injury levels by 12 months after ACL reconstruction, while the uninjured limb stayed essentially the same.
- The surgical limb showed significant deficits in peak knee flexion angle, peak knee extensor moment, and rate of knee extensor moment at every post-op assessment (4, 6, 8, and 12 months) compared with pre-injury values.
- The nonsurgical limb showed no significant changes from pre-injury to any post-op time point.
- Evidence is limited: a small cohort study (13 athletes, 6 female, mean age 20.7 years; Level of evidence 2) using each athlete's own pre-injury running data as the comparator.
Clinically assessing this area? See the knee special tests.