Summary:
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Bibliographically, exercise affects Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) laxity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fatigue on Anterior Cruciate Ligament laxity.
METHOD: 23 recreational athletes volunteers, 13 men and 10 women aged 20-29 years old with no history of knee injury underwent maximal displacement of the tibia with the KT-1000 arthrometer before and after the Gerkin fatigue protocol on the Technogym treadmill. SPSS, V.26 was used for data analysis and the level of statistical significance was set as p <0.05.
RESULTS: For the mixed sample of 23 men and women, a statistically significant knee anterior laxity of the ACL was found using the KT-1000 arthrometer after the fatigue protocol named Gerkin. Specifically, the mean difference value laxity for the right knee was: -2.63±1,09mm, [95% Confidence Interval (CI), -2.15 to -3.10; p=.000] and for the left knee the mean difference value laxity was -2.56 ±1,13mm [95% CI, -2.07 to -3.05; p=.000]. For men (n=13) the right knee from baseline and immediate post exercise values were respectively: 5.23±0.92mm and 7.8±1.54mm. Next, the left knee from baseline and immediate post exercise values were respectively: 5.15±0.94mm and 7.69±1.56. For women (n=10), the right knee from baseline and immediate post exercise values were respectively: 6.45±0.95mm and 9.15±1.52mm. The left knee from baseline and immediate post exercise values were respectively: 6.35±0.81mm and 8.95±1.32mm.
CONCLUSIONS: Through our research we conclude that on the one hand fatigue affects anterior knee ACL laxity using the Gerkin protocol and on the other hand all subjects showed higher values of ACL laxity after fatigue compared to the baseline values. Therefore, the ACL reached its elongation limits due to its viscoelastic behaviour. The conclusions can not be generalized to the general population and are limited to the parameters of this work.
KEYWORDS: Anterior tibial translation fatigue, ACL laxity, knee arthrometric evaluation, KT-1000.
Keywords:
Anterior tibial translation, fatigue, ACL laxity, knee arthrometric evaluation, KT-1000.
