Mechanical Compensations of Lower Extremity Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Using Autogenic Hamstring Muscle Graft

Abstract

To adequately absorb shock during the landing phase of both jogging and forward hopping, there is rapid increase in summated extension moments of lower extremity joints. This increase was found to be significantly lower in persons who had ACL reconstruction procedure using patellar tendon autograft. The purpose of the study was to inve:;tigate the extension moments of subjects who had ACL reconstruction procedure using semitendinosus autograft during the landing phase of both jogging and forward hopping. Kinetic gait parameters were collected from both operated and non-operated lower extremities of 9 male subjects who had ACL reconstruction 6 months ago (mean age 28.3 ± 6.7, mean height 1.77 m ± 0.09, and mean weight 83.4 kg± 9.7) and 9 matched normal subjects. A within-subject design was selected to compare the operated and non-operated sides. Bilateral lower extremity kinetic data were collected during jogging and forward hopping. Data were analyzed using paired t-test with an alpha level of 0.05. There was no significant difference (p > .05) in the summated extension moment values between the operated and non-operated lower extremities during jogging with means of 3.28 ± 0.76 and 3.88 ± 0.82 respectively (r= 0.753, p < .05). This result may indicate that at the end of the rehabilitation period, subjects undergoing this operative technique were able to adequately absorb the shock imposed on their lower extremities during jogging.