TY  - JOUR
A1  - Busch, Aglaja
A1  - Blasimann, Angela
A1  - Henle, Philipp
A1  - Baur, Heiner
T1  - Neuromuscular activity during stair descent in ACL reconstructed patients
BT  - a pilot study
JF  - The Knee
N2  - Background: The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is a severe knee injury. Altered kinematics and kinetics in ACL reconstructed (ACL-R) patients compared to healthy participants (ACL-I) are known and attributed to an altered sensorimotor control. However, studies on neuromuscular control often lack homogeneous patient cohorts. The objective was to examine neuromuscular activity during stair descent in patients one year after ACL reconstruction. Method: Neuromuscular activity of vastus medialis (VM) and lateralis (VL), biceps femoris (BF) and semitendinosus (ST) was recorded by electromyography in 10 ACL-R (age: 26 +/- 10 years; height: 175 +/- 6 cm; mass: 75 +/- 14 kg) and 10 healthy matched controls (age: 31 +/- 7 years; height: 175 +/- 7 cm; mass: 68 +/- 10 kg). A 10-minute walking treadmill warm-up was used for submaximal normalization. Afterwards participants descended 10 times a six-step stairway at a self-selected speed. The movement was separated into pre-activation (PRE), weight acceptance (WA) and push-off phase (PO). Normalized root mean squares for each muscle, limb and movement phase were calculated. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA compared ACL-R injured and contralateral leg and the ACL-I leg (alpha = 0.05). Results: Significant increased normalised activity in ST during WA in ACL-R injured leg compared to ACL-I and during PO in VL in the ACL-R contralateral leg compared to ACL-I. Decreased activity was shown in VM in ACL-R injured compared to contralateral leg (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Altered neuromuscular activations are present one year after ACL reconstruction compared to the contralateral and healthy matched control limb. Current standard rehabilitation programs may not be able to fully restore sensorimotor control and demand further investigations. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - Knee
KW  - Neuromuscular control
KW  - Sensorimotor control
KW  - Electromyography
KW  - Rehabilitation
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2018.12.011
SN  - 0968-0160
SN  - 1873-5800
VL  - 26
IS  - 2
SP  - 310
EP  - 316
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -