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. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0240192.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240192. eCollection 2020.

Evidence for the effects of prehabilitation before ACL-reconstruction on return to sport-related and self-reported knee function: A systematic review

Florian Giesche  1 , Daniel Niederer  2 , Winfried Banzer  1 , Lutz Vogt  2
Affiliations

Evidence for the effects of prehabilitation before ACL-reconstruction on return to sport-related and self-reported knee function: A systematic review

Florian Giesche et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Study design: Systematic review.

Background and objectives: Preoperative neuromuscular function is predictive for knee function and return to sports (RTS) after reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The aim of this review was to examine the potential benefits of prehabilitation on pre-/postoperative objective, self-reported and RTS-specific outcomes.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted within three databases. From the 1.071 studies screened, two randomized control trials (RCTs), two control trials (CTs) and two cohort studies (CS) met the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality rating adopted the PEDro- (RCT, CT) or Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale (CS).

Results and conclusions: Methodological quality of the included studies was moderate (PEDro score: 6.5 ± 1.7; range 4 to 9). Two studies reported higher increases of the maximal quadriceps torque from baseline to pre-reconstruction: one study in the limb symmetry index (LSI), and one in both legs of the prehabilitation group compared to the controls. At 12-weeks post-reconstruction, one study (from two) indicated that the prehabilitation group had a lesser post-operative decline in the single-leg-hop for distance LSI (clinically meaningful). Similar findings were found in terms of quadriceps strength LSI (one study). At both pre-reconstruction (three studies) and two-year post-surgery (two studies), the prehabilitation groups reached significantly higher self-reported knee function (clinically meaningful) than the controls. RTS tended to be faster (one study). At two years post-surgery, RTS rates (one study) were higher in the prehabilitation groups. The results provide evidence for the relevance of prehabilitation prior to ACL-reconstruction to improve neuromuscular and self-reported knee function as well as RTS. More high quality confirmatory RCTs are warranted.

Registration number: PROSPERO 2017: CRD42017065491.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no support from any organisation for the submitted work, no financial rela-tionships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the pre-vious three years and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. We declare that we have no competing interests. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

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Fig 1. PRISMA flow diagram.
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