Altered gait contributes to long-term knee problems after ACL surgery

For people with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in the knee, surgical ACL reconstruction (ACLR) is an effective treatment to restore joint stability. However, many treated patients still develop additional long-term knee problems, such as: B. Knee osteoarthritis. New research results published in the Journal of Orthopedic Research shows that individuals after ACLR exhibit altered gait, which may contribute to these problems.

For the study, researchers compared gait biomechanics between the ACLR and uninjured limbs of 58 patients who underwent ACLR and 58 uninjured controls.

Although gait biomechanics in patients with ACLR became more symmetric in the first 12 months after ACLR, the ACLR and uninvolved limbs showed persistent aberrant gait biomechanics compared to uninjured controls.

A persistent aberrant gait pattern after ACLR, as observed in our study, may cause joint stress that may contribute to further long-term knee joint problems.”

Christin Büttner, MS, corresponding author, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Implementing early rehabilitation measures to normalize gait after ACLR could help maintain long-term knee joint health of both the injured and uninjured limbs.