Comparison of postural control between female athletes with and without ACL reconstruction during landing

Abstract

Introduction: Athletes with Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction usually present functional limitations. Although ACLR is thought to restore mechanical stability of the knee, changes have been reported, including defects in strength, biomechanics, and altered postural control. Therefore, after ACLR, a deficiency in postural control while performing functional tasks may predict secondary ligament injury. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the postural control index between female athletes with and without ACL reconstruction during a drop landing maneuver. Materials & Method: In this cross-sectional study, twenty female athletes (10 healthy and 10 ACLR) performed a single-leg landing on a 30-centimeter platform on the center of the force plate (40×60 Bertec) and held their balance for 20 seconds. The data analysis was performed by SPSS version 25. Independent t-tests were used to examine possible between-group differences at the significance level of 95% (P ≤ 0.05). Results: Based on the two variables of anterior-posterior (COPy) and mediolateral (COPx) center of pressure used in this study, the results showed that the mean of postural control index (Confidence Ellipse Area) in the control group was higher than in the ACLR group. In other words, the mean of postural control index was 68.47 cm2 in the healthy group and 60.08 cm2 in the ACLR group. Conclusion: Although ACL reconstruction restores the mechanical role of the ACL, it is not very successful in restoring the neural function of the ligament, and this may be due to the fact that even after a long time from surgery, recurrence of the knee joint is repeated. This instability eventually may lead to poor postural control and a lack of sense of joint position, increasing the