[Evaluation of early physiotherapy in patients after surgical treatment of cruciate ligament injury by bone-tendon-bone method].

UNLABELLED: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most important structures of the knee joint. It has a stabilizing function and causes sliding movement between the articular surfaces. Most frequently there comes to the anterior cruciate ligament injury during practicing sports such as skiing, football, sports which require sudden turns and those which are associated with jumps for height like basketball and volleyball. The aim of study was to evaluate of the outcomes of complex physiotherapy after reconstruction of anterior cruciate ligament by bone -tendon-bone (BTB) method.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 41 patients, 8 women and 33 men, aged 20 to 45 years, body height 1.60-1.90 cm and body weight 50-100 kg. The patients were divided into two groups. Group I included 26 patients (3 women and 23 men) after arthroscopic ACL reconstruction. Group II--control-group included 15 patients (5 women and 10 men) after ACL injury but not subjected to the ligament reconstruction. The patients from both groups underwent rehabilitation according to the same rehabilitation program suggested by the Medical Magnus Clinic in Lodz, which consisted in performing daily exercises in open and closed kinetic chains. All group I and II patients were examined three times: after surgery (before the start of the rehabilitation), in the sixth week of rehabilitation and 12 weeks afterwards. The clinical examination included: measurement of the range of movement in the knee joint, the measurement of musculoskeletal strength with Lovett scale, knee pain assessment using Visual Analog Scale (VAS), transpatellar anthropometric measurement of the knee joint, linear measurements of the thigh and shin (at two points: 5 and 10 cm above the patellar apex and at two points: 5 and 10 cm below the patellar base).

RESULTS: Introduction of early highly specialized physiotherapy has been demonstrated to contribute to the improvement of the rehabilitation outcomes and to the shortening of the therapy. A statistically significant improvement has been obtained in all examined patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction by bone - tendon - bone method at every stage of rehabilitation in relation to the initial values.

CONCLUSIONS: Early motor physiotherapy has a significant impact on the condition of patients treated both surgically and conservatively. The differences observed between the groups in the range of the measurement of movement in the knee joint, the measurement of musculoskeletal strength, severity of pain in the knee joint, transpatellar anthropometric measurement of the knee joint and linear measurements of the thigh and shin were caused by necessary surgery which leads to the conclusion that the therapeutic rehabilitation should be longer in the investigated group. In this group introduction of physical therapy with analgesic effects is also of importance. Taking into account good results observed in patients from the control group, who were treated conservatively, the possible indications for surgery should be carefully considered.