Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of anterior cruciate ligament
(ACL) reconstruction on the quadriceps-dominant strategy as a parameter associated
with the neuromuscular control of the knee joint.
Methods
In this study 14 competitive soccer players who had undergone ACL reconstruction with
bone–patellar tendon–bone autograft and 14 healthy competitive soccer players performed
two 10-minute treadmill runs, 1 at moderate intensity and 1 at high intensity. Electromyographic
recordings were acquired by use of a telemetric system at the third, fifth, seventh,
and tenth minute of the runs from the vastus lateralis and the biceps femoris bilaterally.
The dependent variable examined was the peak electromyographic amplitude during the
stance phase. Analyses of variance were used to examine significant main effects and
interactions.
Results
Vastus lateralis electromyographic activity during high-intensity running increased
for both the control leg and intact leg (F = 4.48, P < .01), whereas it remained unchanged for the reconstructed leg (P > .05). Biceps femoris electromyographic activity during high-intensity running increased
for the reconstructed leg only compared with both the control leg (F = 3.03, P < .05) and intact leg (F = 3.36, P < .03).
Conclusions
There is no presence of the quadriceps-dominant strategy in ACL-reconstructed athletes
during moderate-intensity exercise. During high-intensity exercise, the intact contralateral
leg develops the quadriceps-dominant strategy whereas the reconstructed leg does not.
The reconstructed leg instead increases biceps femoris activity, developing a “hamstring-dominant”
strategy, and this “asymmetry” may theoretically be in favor of the reconstructed
knee.
Level of Evidence
Level III, retrospective comparative study.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 14, 2012
Accepted:
February 7,
2012
Received:
June 9,
2011
Footnotes
The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
