Subjective assessment of rehabilitation protocol by patients after ACL reconstruction - preliminary report

Subjective evaluation by patients has recently become an important adjunct to postoperative clinical assessment. Apart from standard physical examination, scales demonstrating patients’ subjective outcome measures are used for assessing the efficacy of the treatment and rehabilitation of knee ligamentous injuries. The present work presents patients’ subjective assessment of rehabilitation protocols after ACL reconstruction.

Forty individuals who had undergone ACL reconstruction were randomised into two groups (G1, G2) and followed one of two rehabilitation protocols (A or B). The subjects assessed their knee function at baseline and after physical therapy using the Lysholm score and the IKDC form. The results were analysed with the Mann-Whitney U test. The subjects also completed a questionnaire at discharge.

Analysis of Lysholm and IKDC scores revealed significant differences between the mean pre- and postrehabilitation results in the groups (p<0.05). The greatest improvement was seen in G2 patients rehabilitated with protocol B, with significant mean improvements of 56.3% and 46.7% for the Lysholm and IKDC scores, respectively. Group G1 registered only half of this magnitude of change. Protocol B was also highly rated in the questionnaires.

According the patients opinion a rehabilitation protocol involving a larger number of open kinetic chain exercises may prove more effective in the rehabilitation of patients after ACL reconstruction compared to a programme basing mainly on closed kinetic chains.