CORE STABILIZATION EXERCISES AFTER ACL RECONSTRUCTION SURGERY PROVIDES BETTER OUTCOMES: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Abstract

Background: Decreased core stability displaces center of gravity away from base of support reducing activity participation of athlete. Present study was conducted to study the effect of core stabilization exercises after reconstruction surgery of ACL on functional outcomes.
Methods: 30 subjects following 5 months of ACL reconstruction were randomly assigned to either group that performed (study group) or did not performed (control group) additional core stabilization exercises in conjugation with standard rehabilitation protocol. Outcome measures were: activity level using Tegnar activity level scale and functional performance using triple hop test. Outcome measures were compared at day 1 and day 42 of the treatment.
Result: Significant improvement was seen in the study group for Tegnar score with mean difference changing from 4.5 to 1.5 from day 1 to day 42 of treatment (p=0.039) while the control group showed improvement in mean difference changing from 3.8 to 1.4 (p=.045) from day 1 to day 42 of treatment. Highly significant improvement was seen in the study group for triple hop test with mean difference changing from 25 to 6.7 (p<.001) compared to the control group with mean difference changing from 15.2 to 9.7(p=.005) from day 1 to day 42 of treatment.
Conclusions: Both the groups showed improvement for activity level and functional performance but highly significant improvement was seen in the study group for functional performance. Core stabilization exercises in conjugation with the standard ACL rehabilitation protocol results better improvement in the triple hop test.