Biomechanical evaluation of horizontal jumping after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction in elite handball playersan inertial sensor unit (ISU)-based study

Resumen

The current Ph.D. dissertation revolves around the Biomechanical jumping evaluation after ACL reconstruction in elite Handball Players and its possible effect on ground reaction force (GRF) management several years after competition resumption. The most common knee injury is of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in terms of long absence from or termination of sport carrier and early osteoarthritis, ACL tears occur without any contact with another player (non-contact) due to the knee is most commonly in/or close to full extension; and the lower limbs in “dynamic knee valgus,” a position characterized by hip internal rotation and adduction, tibial external rotation, and foot eversion. Return to sports after ACL reparative surgery is one of the main expectations for athletic patients after suffering this devastating knee injury, several functional evaluation routines prior to return to sport participation has been proposed during the last years after ACL injury but there is no standardized protocol to evaluate return to sport after ligament reconstruction. Different authors have recommended the utilization of unilateral functional jump tests after anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions to examine the deficits between extremities. In the clinical and performance environment, inertial sensor units (ISUs) have been recently settled up and validated as a new tool for the evaluation of biomechanical impairments in athletes with ACL reconstruction and can to evaluate the athletes who had returned back to elite competition if the exhibit lasting biomechanical jumping pattern alterations in terms of greater support of three-axis peak forces during single-leg horizontal jumping maneuvers, compared with their control counterparts. The present doctoral thesis comprises 2 scientific studies that have been published in scientific JCR journals. In the first study (Chapter 2), we aimed to examine horizontal jumping biomechanical differences between previously ACL-R elite male handball players who have returned back to competition versus matched sport, competitive level, sex, and age-matched controls. In the second study (Chapter 3), we aimed to examine the biomechanical differences in horizontal jumping between elite female handball players with previous ACL reconstruction who had returned to their previous sport activity, vs. level-, sex-, and age-matched pairs of control counterparts.