Anterior Cruciate Ligament Functional Sports Asssessment

The incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) patients has doubled in the past 5 years at Rush University Orthopaedics. Additionally, there has been a 3-fold increase in the number of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in patients younger than the age of 25 years of age during this 5-year period. Fortunately, approximately 80%-90% of these patients return to their sports at their previous level of play. However, with the increased incidence in tears, it is important for medical providers to assist the patients in determining the risk factors they may display when preparing to return to sport. There are very few published return to sport guidelines following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush has developed a functional sports assessment (FSA) to evaluate anterior cruciate ligament injury risk factors on postoperative patients. The FSA factors include range-of-motion, strength, endurance, proprioception, power, core stability, ankle stability, and overall biomechanics and confidence. Although the FSA has not been proven reliable or valid, it is based on the other commonly used tasks in determining a patient’s ability after anterior cruciate ligament surgery. It has been clinically relevant for the patient, therapist, athletic trainer, and physician in identifying weaknesses and risk factors at the 5-6 month time postoperative time period. This helps to guide the patient in what tasks he or she needs to be attentive to during the transition to return to sport to minimize reinjury. This article provides factors that were considered when developing the FSA, a detailed description of the FSA, and future considerations to improve the assessment for validity and reliability.