Enhancing Recovery Outcome: The Role of Time-Based Rehabilitation Protocol in Post-Arthroscopic Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Introduction: In football, knee injuries are prominently ranked as the second most common type of musculoskeletal injuries, with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures being the most frequent among these. Aim of the Work: To gather evidence on the effectiveness of time based rehabilitation program in terms of return to full range of motion, muscle strength, flexibility and agility in rehabilitation of patients undergoing arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.Patients and Methods: After obtaining written, informed consent, 50 male patients, clinically diagnosed as having anterior cruciate ligament injury, undergone arthroscopic ACL reconstruction surgery by same surgeon were included in the study. All patients were subjected for Time based rehabilitation protocol.Results: The mean limb length for patients was 110.4 ± 1.81 cm. The average height of patients in meters was 1.73 ± 0.04 meters. The mean weight of patients in kilograms was 70.06 ± 3.17 kilograms. Finally, the average BMI of study subjects was 23.45 ± 1.2. The knee extension deficit in injured limb and its evolution throughout rehabilitation protocol phases. Patients showed high significant differences in knee extension over protocol phases, but there was no significant difference at 1 month postoperative period. The improvement of knee flexion in patients all over the rehabilitation protocol phases in with high significant differences. All variables showed high significant differences in muscle strength over phases. All variables that were repeatedly measured showed high significant differences in Flexibility test over protocol phases. The mean Barrow agility test was 27.8 ± 2.61 with median 27.5.