Post-operative use of knee brace in bonẻtendon̉bone patellar tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: 5-year follow-up results of a randomized prospective study

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Post-operative use of knee brace in bonẻtendon̉bone patellar tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: 5-year follow-up results of a randomized prospective study
Issue online:
20 Dec 2004
Accepted for publication 10 August 2004
To cite this article: A. Harilainen, J. Sandelin (2006)
Post-operative use of knee brace in bone-tendon-bone patellar tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: 5-year follow-up results of a randomized prospective study
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 16 (1), 14̉18.
doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2004.00435.x
Blackwell Synergy

A. Harilainen, J. Sandelin

ORTON, Orthopaedic Hospital, Invalid Foundation Tenholantie 10, Helsinki, Finland

Corresponding author: Arsi Harilainen, MD, ORTON, Orthopaedic Hospital, Invalid Foundation Tenholantie 10, 00280 Helsinki, Finland. Tel: +358 9 47486315, Fax: +358 9 47482478, E-mail: arsi.harilainen@invalidisaatio.fi

Abstract
Sixty patients were prospectively randomized to brace and no-brace groups after bonẻtendon̉bone patellar tendon anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. The brace group wore a rehabilitation knee brace for 12 weeks post-operatively, while the no-brace group was mobilized immediately, and crutches were discarded 2 weeks post-operatively. The groups were comparable with respect to age, gender, time from injury to surgery and concomitant injuries. There were no differences either pre-operatively or 5 years post-operatively (80% of patients reviewed) between the groups in terms of the knee score (Lysholm), activity level (Tegner), degree of laxity or isokinetic peak muscle torque. Thus it appears that knee braces are not needed in the post-operative rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction with the patellar tendon graft.

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