Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess whether a battery of jump tests can distinguish between anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed patients and control subjects, and to investigate which tests can detect differences in jumping performance between the two groups. METHODS: 30 male athletes aged 18 to 50 years matched for sex, age and activity level to a control group of 30 healthy individuals were examined one year after primary ACL reconstruction. Jumping ability was instrumentally assessed by an infrared optical acquisition system using a battery of jump tests including mono- and bipodalic vertical jumps, and a side-hop test. Differences in activity level and jump performance between ACL patients and healthy subjects have been assessed. RESULTS: The limb used in jump test significantly influenced counter-movement jump (effect size = 0.0145, p = 0.0002), drop-jump (effect size = 0.0279, p < 0.0001), and side-hop performance (effect size = 0.0029, p = 0.002), showing the highest performance for dominant limb on non-dominant limb in healthy subjects, and for uninjured limb on ACL reconstructed limb in ACL-reconstructed patients, in all monopodalic tests. The effect of the intervention was significant only for side-hop test (effect size = 0.1200, p = 0.002), with ACL-reconstructed limb and uninjured limb in ACL-reconstructed patients showing a lower side-hop performance compared to non-dominant limb (p = 0.014) and dominant limb (p = 0.009), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The capacity to perform side-hop tests was significantly affected in male athletes who had undergone ACL reconstruction compared to control group one year after surgery. Side-hop test can help detecting functional deficits following ACL surgery, thus contributing to estimate athletes' lower limb recovery capacity.