Unilateral lower-limb musculoskeletal injury: its long-term effect on balance

To assess if any long-term decrements in balance occur after unilateral musculoskeletal injury. The relation between the size of decrement and the dominance, the type, and the time since injury were also considered.

With eyes open and closed, postural sway in one-legged standing was recorded for 10 seconds in 48 subjects who sustained a unilateral musculoskeletal injury 6 months to 42 years earlier. Comparative data were also collected in 108 healthy subjects with no previous injury.

A university physiologic laboratory.

Injured subjects were recruited locally via the district general hospital, sports injury clinic, and the university, and had not received any treatment within the past 6 months.

Postural sway of the injured and uninjured limb (or dominant and nondominant limb in the uninjured subjects).

Postural sway was significantly greater in the injured limb compared with the uninjured limb (p = .0118). The ratio of the postural sway of the injured limb compared with the uninjured limb (I/UI%) was significantly lower in the group with nondominant injuries (p = .0085). Subjects with nondominant injuries performed significantly better than those with dominant injuries (p = .0085). No relation was found between the decrements in balance performance and the type of injury and time since injury.

Full recovery is frequently not achieved and perhaps recovery does not continue to improve once the formal rehabilitation period is over.