Assessment of Gait Symmetry Improvements in National Athletes after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction during Rehabilitation

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This study aimed to quantify changes in gait parameters and their symmetries among athletes with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions during a rehabilitation program. Twenty-two national players with ACL reconstructions and 15 healthy athletes were recruited. The gait data were collected between postoperative weeks 4–5, 8–9 and 12–13 using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The spatio-temporal gait parameters and symmetry indexes (SIs) were evaluated for the patients and the control group. One-way and repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The results demonstrated significant differences among spatio-temporal ( P <0.001) and SIs ( P =0.007) of patients for Test 1 and the control group. Repeated measure analysis revealed significant changes in the linear combinations of spatio-temporal gait variables ( P =0.002) and SIs ( P =0.043) over time. The injured limb’s step length, cadence and weight acceptance time presented significant improvement across time ( P <0.001). Moreover, the SI of the stance time was reduced significantly by 46.48% ( P =0.004) among SI parameters. After three months, no significant differences were found between patients and healthy controls for the measured gait components ( P >0.05). The rehabilitation program allowed national athletes to restore symmetry in spatio-temporal gait parameters toward the control group’s range 12–13 weeks post-reconstruction.