Innovative rehabilitative bracing with applied resistance improves walking pattern recovery in the early stages of rehab
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(2020) 21:644
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Innovative rehabilitative bracing with applied resistance improves walking pattern recovery in the early stages of rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction: a preliminary investigation Jacopo Emanuele Rocchi1,2* , Luciana Labanca1, Valeria Luongo1 and Lorenzo Rum1
Abstract Background: The use of knee braces early after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a controversial issue. The study preliminarily compares the effect of a traditional brace blocked in knee extension and a new functional brace equipped with a spring resistance on walking and strength performance early after ACL reconstruction performed in the acute/subacute stage. Methods: 14 ACL-reconstructed patients wore either a traditional (Control group: CG, 7 subjects) or a new functional brace (Experimental group: EG 7 subjects) until the 30th post-operative day. All patients were tested before surgery (T0), 15, 30, and 60 days after surgery (T1, T2, and T3, respectively). Knee angular displacement and ground reaction forces (GRF) during the stance phase of the gait cycle were analyzed at each session and, at T3, maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) for knee flexor/extensor muscles was performed. Limb symmetry indexes (LSI) of GRF and MVIC parameters were calculated. Results: At T3, EG showed greater peak knee flexion angle of injured limb compared to CG (41 ± 2° vs 32 ± 1°, p < 0.001). During weight acceptance, a significant increase of anteroposterior GRF peak and vertical impulse from T1 to T3 was observed in the injured limb in EG (p < 0.05) but not in CG (p > 0.05). EG showed a greater side-to-side LSI of weight acceptance peak of anteroposterior GRF at T2 (113 ± 23% vs 69 ± 11%, p < 0.05) and T3 (112 ± 23% vs 84 ± 10%, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The preliminary findings from this study indicate that the new functional brace did help in improving gait biomechanical pattern in the first two months after ACL reconstruction compared to a traditional brace locked in knee extension. Keywords: Anterior cruciate ligament, Brace, Rehabilitation, Gait, Biomechanics
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Piazza Lauro De Bosis 6, 00135 Rome, Italy 2 Villa Stuart Sport Clinic, FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Via Trionfale 5952, 00135 Rome, Italy © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by s
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