ACL Reconstruction:
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are becoming increasing common in sports today. ACL rehabilitation and prevention training is one of the hottest topics in sports medicine throughout the world.
The reality is while 80% of ACL reconstruction patients return to sport at some level, only 65% return to the same sporting level as before their injury while only 55% return to sport at an elite competitive level within 1-2 years post ACL surgery
How?
ACL injuries occur most frequent in sports that involve pivoting, jumping, landing and sudden decelerations such as Gaelic football, hurling, rugby and soccer.
While ACL tears can occur due to a traumatic incident it is the non-contact ACL tears which are concerning physiotherapists and rehabilitation therapists around the world.
Here's an example of an ACL tear from a pivoting movement
Road To Recovery
The return to play journey post ACL surgery is often very unpredictable with many ups, downs, twists and turns.
Many professional athletes will be back training and playing their sport again within 6-12 months however there are several considerations to be taken in these cases. Professional athletes are paid to do their rehab and have large medical teams at their disposal day in day out.
The amateur athlete does not have these luxuries. The amateur athlete still has to earn a living and get on with their day to day activities while often only seeing a professional therapist every week or every fortnight. Therefore it is extremely unrealistic and often dangerous for an amateur athlete to seek a return to sport in the same timeframe as a pro.
Evidence Based Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation after ACL injury has developed dramatically in recent years, we at Physio Tullamore offer the most up to date evidence based ACL rehabilitation programs around.
We offer intensive programs incorporating strength, hypertrophy and a range of core stability exercises along with an increased emphasis on neuro-muscular retraining with proprioceptive and balance exercises.
Physio Tullamore does not believe in a one size fits all approach, we treat each patient individually taking into consideration the extent of the knee damage, the patients adherence to the rehab program and the eventual functional aims of the patient.
Evidence Based Return To Play
Here at Physio Tullamore we run a variety of evidence based functional tests in order to predict a safe and successful return to sport for our patients.
We strongly believe that return to sport should be based on meeting key performance criteria rather than allowing players to return based on time frames alone or by getting cleared from orthopaedic surgeons based on a series of static clinical test.
Although re-injury can occur, your risk is dramatically decreased if you can pass our sport specific performance criteria tests.
Here’s just a sample of a couple of performance tests we use on our patients
Prevention Is Better Than Cure
If you are lucky enough to have never experienced an ACL injury and wish to do everything in your power to prevent this from ever happening, we at Physio Tullamore can offer you an intensive ACL prevention program to radically reduce the risk of this injury occurring to you.
To begin your road to recovery or to begin a ACL injury prevention programme contact Physio Tullamore on 0579329111
