Motion analysis for ACL injuries prevention in sport: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this systematic review was to examine, summarize, and compare evidence related to the use of motion analysis as a screening for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries prevention. The methodology of this study was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement for systematic reviews.EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The following databases were searched (2010 to 2020): Scopus, PubMed/Medline, and Google Scholar (up to 30 November 2020, and the search terms anterior cruciate ligament AND injury AND sport AND motion analysis OR biomechanics OR kinematics OR kinetics). Inclusion criteria for relevant studies were original articles published in English that reported on joint kinematics or kinetics assessed within gait laboratories or on the field, with the aim of preventing first ACL injuries or planning return on field for secondary prevention purposes. Studies were excluded if they were reviews, abstracts from conference proceedings not indexed in Scopus, or were not written in English. All studies were evaluated for methodological quality to assess the risk of bias. A first data extraction spreadsheet was created to identify articles of potential eligibility and the following information collected: studies conducted on the field/gait laboratories, type of instrumentation, characteristic of participants (i.e. injured or uninjured athletes, amateur or professional level, male/female, n° of subjects, demographic data), study design, sport, task acquired, aim, results and conclusion.EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: The literature search resulted in a total of 1066 references, from which reviews, irrelevant articles and congress abstract were excluded. A total of 438 articles met the inclusion criteria and in agreement with the journal guidelines (references up to 100), we reduced the timeframe of the articles between 2017 and 2020. Seventy-three studies were reviewed in full-text as they met the final inclusion criteria.CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that motion analysis represents a useful tool in the assessment of ACL injury risk in general, however there is no evidence that it is adopted for the assessment of recovery from previous injuries or for planning prevention programs.