The Patient-Physiotherapist Tango: a Personalized Approach to ACL Recovery - a Qualitative Interview Study

Person-centered care is a concept in healthcare that aims to promote the patient's health and adapt resources and interventions based on the patient's needs and wishes. Knowledge on what person-centered physiotherapy is for patients who rehabilitate after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, and how patients experience it within the context of sports injury rehabilitation, is lacking.

The aim of this study was to explore how patients who were in a late rehabilitation stage (8-12 months) after ACL reconstruction experienced their rehabilitation from a person-centered perspective.

Qualitative interview study.

Fourteen patients (57% females), aged 18-57, treated with ACL reconstruction, were interviewed with semi-structured interviews 8-12 months after ACL reconstruction. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

One theme: all lights on me; be seen and heard, a cornerstone for patients, supported by three main categories: 1) rehabilitation: a roller coaster of physical and psychological challenges; 2) patient involvement; 3) the physiotherapist - stronger together; emerged from the collected data.

Patients in a late rehabilitation stage (8-12 months) after ACL reconstruction experienced that the rehabilitation process was person-centered when they felt to be the focus and were allowed to participate via open and constructive communication with the physiotherapists.