COMPARISON OF ACUTE ACL STABILITY TESTS

A COMPARISON OF ACUTE ACL STABILITY TESTS DONE PREOPERATIVELY

AND UNDER ANESTHESIA AT SURGERY IN RECREATIONAL MALE ATHLETES

Kong, Hamlet, Peckham and Mowbray (1994) have noted that:

Traditionally, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have been difficult to diagnose...Studies have shown that the anterior drawer test has a poor sensitivity both in acute and chronic ACL deficient knees; thus, more emphasis has been placed on the pivot shift and Lachman tests. (p. 51)

However, as noted by the authors, even the pivot shift and Lachman tests can be relatively insensitive with respect to certain ACL injuries. For example, the authors found that in their sample, four cases of proven ACL rupture; this where clinical examination revealed an absent pivot shift and a near normal Lachman test following a displaced bucket handle tear of the medial meniscus.

Moreover, Kong, Hamlet, Peckham and Mowbray (1994) noted that their findings of incorrect diagnoses for the pivot shift and Lachman's test have been reproduced in cadaver studies. Given this it seems reasonable to state that continued research into ACL manual diagnostic tests is needed. The proposed study will answer this need through a comparison of three subject groups of male athletes with ACL injuries. All of the methods and procedures that will be used to make this comparison are reported below.

The subjects in the study will consist

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e somehow atypical or complicated in a manner that is not representative of ACL injuries will be reduced. Thus, findings should be stronger in their generalizability. Procedures Of the subjects volunteering to participate in the study, one-third will be randomly assigned to the Lachman's Test group; these subjects will be given Lachman's manual diagnostic test designed to determine the existence of an injured ligamentous structure of the knee joint. This test will be administered twice to each of these subjects: once preoperatively and once under anesthesia at surgery. An additional one-third of the volunteers will be randomly assigned to the Pivot Shift test group. The Pivot Shift test is another manual diagnostic test used to diagnose injured ligamentous structure of the knee joint. This test also will be administered twice to each of these subjects: once preoperatively and once under anesthesia at surgery. The remaining one-third of volunteer subjects will be assigned to the Anterior Drawer Test condition. Like the previous two tests, the Anterior Drawer Test is another manual diagnostic test used to determine the existence of an inured ligamentous structure of the knee joint. Once again, each subject will be given

Category: Medical - C