Associations between postural orientation errors in patients undergoing rehabilitation for ACL reconstruction and...

To investigate associations between postural orientation errors (POEs) in patients undergoing rehabilitation for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) at 2-year follow-up.

Prospective cohort study.

Fifty-three participants (mean (SD) 27 (6.5) years, 24 women), (mean (range) 7 (4-10) months post ACLR) were included. At baseline, all participants were visually assessed for POEs using a validated test battery. The POE subscales Activities of Daily Living and Sport were used in the analysis. At 2-years, the following PROMs were collected: Global knee function, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, ACL Quality of Life (QoL), Knee Self-Efficacy Scale (K-SES), and ACL Return-to-Sport after Injury scale.

Twenty-one participants answered the questionnaires at 2 years (7 women and 14 men). Worse baseline POE Sport was associated with worse scores on K-SES (r_s ​= ​-0.435, p ​≤ ​0.049) and ACL-QoL (r_s ​= ​-0.467 to -0.576, p ​≤ ​0.038) at follow-up. No statistically significant associations were observed between POEs and the other PROMs.

Postural orientation during the rehabilitation phase may be important for future knee self-efficacy and knee-related QoL after ACLR. Given the small population and low response rate, this result needs to be confirmed in future research.