Journal Club: ACL Reconstruction and Fear

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Hello Everyone! Thank you for your patience with this blog. I mentioned a few months ago that my wife and I were having another baby girl and I was going to take pause. Well, now she is 3 moths old and we are enjoying having a little snuggly one in our house. I am finally feeling like I can get back to this platform a little bit, albeit slowly. So, I am excited to be back! And since I've been off for a little while, I thought I'd post a Journal Club from one of recent work discussions.

There are always many fun topics and research to discuss when talking about ACL rehab, recovery, and return to sport. We’ve even talked about some of the new research and ideas when it comes to ACL rehab on this platform. But one of the interesting aspects that often gets pushed to the back burner if you will is the psychology of return to sport after ACL injury and recovery.

In a previous Journal Club on this blog, we looked at a recent study involving the importance of looking at confidence and return to sport and provided an additional tool for you to use in your clinic to consider the mental state of your patient in reference to their rehab process and readiness to return to sport.

Similarly, a recent study came out looking at self reported fear and ACL recovery - specifically fear of activity after ACL and re-injury and this was the topic of our most recent residency journal club meeting.

ACL Reconstruction and Self-Reported Fear

The researchers found 40 patients who were cleared for return to sport and had them fill out the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11) along with other standard functional measures. Then these patients were tracked over a 12 month period to identify any subsequent ACL injury.
The results were interesting and lend credence to what we might have assumed. Essentially, the researchers found that, indeed, a higher score on the TSK-11 showed decreased activity levels of the year and increased risk of re-injury.
 
So, much like the functional measure we discussed previously on confidence, this study also validates the usage of a fear based outcome measure to help us better identify at risk patients for re-injury. We can subsequently use that information to help educate and tailor strength interventions to decrease the TSK score and improve that patient's activity level and ultimately quality of life.

Jason

***Check out my book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!***

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