Quantifying the Benefits of Supervised vs. Unsupervised Pre-habilitation for Patients With Acute ACL Tears

WellSpan Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture

Treatments: Other: Traditional pre-habilitation; Other: Self-guided pre-habilitation exercise program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04593264

1168599

Details and patient eligibility

About

Although the success of physical therapy following surgery has been well-documented and validated in patients undergoing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR) procedures, more recent studies have demonstrated that patient outcomes are the most favorable when surgery is delayed approximately 4 weeks until after the patient has completed a preoperative physical therapy program, or "pre-habilitation." The ultimate goal of pre-habilitation is to regain full range of motion in the knee and reach approximately 80% of pre-injury quadricep strength. However, extra physical therapy can stress both time and resources. Thus, we propose a home-based, self-guided pre-habilitation program. We hypothesize that patients participating in self-guided pre-habilitation will experience the same benefits as patients in a traditional office-based physical therapy program.

Enrollment: 128 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Skeletal maturity
• Acute ACL rupture occurring no longer than 4 weeks prior to presentation
• Ability to participate in a pre-habilitation program
• Nature of the injury allows adequate time for pre-habilitation
• Ability to speak, read, and understand English
• Willing and able to provide informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Any injuries requiring immediate surgical intervention
• Ipsilateral meniscus tear that preventing participation in a pre-habilitation program
• Ipsilateral MCL tears grade III
• Ipsilateral PCL tears (any grade)
• Concomitant LCL injuries
• Concomitant posterolateral corner injuries
• Inflammatory arthritis
• Prior ACL rupture/reconstruction
• Anyone unable to participate in a stretching/strengthening program

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

128 participants in 2 patient groups

Traditional Supervised Prehabilitation with a Physical Therapist

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Other: Traditional pre-habilitation

Self-guided Home-based Prehabilitation

Experimental group

Treatment:

Other: Self-guided pre-habilitation exercise program