Do psychosocial interventions improve rehabilitation outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction? A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of psychosocial interventions in improving patient-reported clinical outcomes, including return to sport/activity, and intermediary psychosocial factors after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. METHODS: MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were searched from each database's inception to March 2017 for published studies in patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Studies were included if they reported on the effects of a postoperative psychosocial intervention on a patient-reported clinical measure of disability, function, pain, quality of life, return to sport/activity, or intermediary psychosocial factor. Data were extracted using a standardized form and summary effects from each article were compiled. The methodological quality of randomized trials was assessed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database Scale and scores greater than 5/10 were considered high quality. RESULTS: A total of 893 articles were identified from the literature search. Of these, four randomized trials ( N = 210) met inclusion criteria. The four articles examined guided imagery and relaxation, coping modeling, and visual imagery as postoperative psychosocial interventions. Methodological quality scores of the studies ranged from 5 to 9. There were inconsistent findings for the additive benefit of psychosocial interventions for improving postoperative function, pain, or self-efficacy and limited evidence for improving postoperative quality of life, anxiety, or fear of reinjury. No study examined the effects of psychosocial interventions on return to sport/activity. CONCLUSION: Overall, there is limited evidence on the efficacy of postoperative psychosocial interventions for improving functional recovery after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Real-time optimized biofeedback utilizing sport techniques (ROBUST): a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female athletes lead to a variety of short- and long-term physical, financial, and psychosocial ramifications. While dedicated injury prevention training programs have shown promise, ACL injury rates remain high as implementation has not become widespread. Conventional prevention programs use a combination of resistance, plyometric, balance and agility training to improve high-risk biomechanics and reduce the risk of injury. While many of these programs focus on reducing knee abduction load and posture during dynamic activity, targeting hip extensor strength and utilization may be more efficacious, as it is theorized to be an underlying mechanism of injury in adolescent female athletes. Biofeedback training may complement traditional preventive training, but has not been widely studied in connection with ACL injuries. We hypothesize that biofeedback may be needed to maximize the effectiveness of neuromuscular prophylactic interventions, and that hip-focused biofeedback will improve lower extremity biomechanics to a larger extent than knee-focused biofeedback during dynamic sport-specific tasks and long-term movement strategies. METHODS: This is an assessor-blind, randomized control trial of 150 adolescent competitive female (9-19 years) soccer players. Each participant receives 3x/week neuromuscular preventive training and 1x/week biofeedback, the mode depending on their randomization to one of 3 biofeedback groups (hip-focused, knee-focused, sham). The primary aim is to assess the impact of biofeedback training on knee abduction moments (the primary biomechanical predictor of future ACL injury) during double-leg landings, single-leg landings, and unplanned cutting. Testing will occur immediately before the training intervention, immediately after the training intervention, and 6 months after the training intervention to assess the long-term retention of modified biomechanics. Secondary aims will assess performance changes, including hip and core strength, power, and agility, and the extent to which maturation effects biofeedback efficacy. DISCUSSION: The results of the Real-time Optimized Biofeedback Utilizing Sport Techniques (ROBUST) trial will help complement current preventive training and may lead to clinician-friendly methods of biofeedback to incorporate into widespread training practices. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Date of publication in ClinicalTrials.gov: 20/04/2016. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02754700 .

Comparison of transportal and outside-in techniques for posterolateral femoral tunnel drilling in double-bundle ACL reconstruction -three-dimensional CT analysis of bone tunnel geometry.

PURPOSE: To comparatively analyze the geometry of the posterolateral femoral (PL) tunnel in double-bundle ACL reconstruction between far anteromedial transportal (TP) and outside-in (OI) drilling techniques based on three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) image analysis. METHODS: Forty patients who underwent anatomic double-bundle hamstring ACL reconstruction using the TP (n: 20) or OI (n: 20) method with postoperative CT data available were included in the study. The analyzed parameters were as follows: location of the intraarticular tunnel aperture, tunnel length, bending angle (angulation of the graft at the intraarticular tunnel aperture), and long axis of the tunnel aperture/drill diameter ratio as a parameter of ellipsoidal geometry. RESULTS: Anatomical tunnel placement was achieved in both groups. Coalition of the AM and PL tunnel apertures was found in 3 knees in the TP group and 1 knee in the OI group, though no significant difference in the rate of this problem was demonstrated between the groups (P: 0.30). The tunnel length was not significantly different between the groups, while the graft bending angle at the tunnel aperture was significantly larger in the OI group than the TP group (99.4° vs. 63.6°). The long axis/drill diameter ratio averaged 1.23 in the TP group and 1.13 in the OI group with significant intergroup difference. CONCLUSION: When drilling the PL femoral tunnel in double-bundle ACL reconstruction, anatomic placement of the intraarticular tunnel aperture was feasible in both the TP and OI techniques. The tunnel aperture was rounder and the graft bending angle in knee extended position at the intraarticular aperture was more acute in the OI technique than the TP technique. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV (retrospective comparison of the two patient groups treated at different hospitals).

Validity of the twitch interpolation technique for the assessment of quadriceps neuromuscular asymmetries.

This study examined the validity of the twitch interpolation technique for evaluating side-to-side asymmetries in quadriceps neuromuscular function. Fifty-six subjects with a wide range of asymmetries (19 healthy, 24 with unilateral and 13 with bilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction) took part in the study. Supramaximal electrical paired stimuli were delivered to the quadriceps muscle during and immediately after a maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the knee extensors (twitch interpolation technique). MVC torque, voluntary activation and resting doublet-evoked torque were measured separately for the two sides, and percent side-to-side asymmetries were calculated for each parameter. MVC torque asymmetry was plotted against voluntary activation asymmetry and doublet-evoked torque asymmetry, and a multiple regression analysis was also conducted. Significant positive correlations were observed between MVC torque asymmetry and both voluntary activation asymmetry (r=0.40; p=0.002) and doublet-evoked torque asymmetry (r=0.53; p<0.001), and their relative contribution to MVC torque asymmetry was comparable (r=0.64; p<0.001). These results establish the validity of the twitch interpolation technique for the assessment of neuromuscular asymmetries. This methodology could provide useful insights into the contribution of some neural and muscular mechanisms that underlie quadriceps strength deficits.