A comparison of clinical assessment with common diagnostic tools for monitoring concussion recovery in adolescent rugby union players.

Objectives: To characterise the incidence, severity and recovery of sport-related concussion (SRC) in schoolboy rugby players and explore whether the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT), Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) and the King-Devick test (K-D test) can be used to monitor concussion status through to full recovery.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Rugby union has a high rate of SRC; however, there is little research investigating how concussion affects adolescent rugby players.

Biomechanical but Not Strength or Performance Measures Differentiate Male Athletes Who Experience ACL Reinjury on Return to Level 1 Sports.

Background: Performance measures such as strength, jump height/length, and change of direction (CoD) time during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation have been used to determine readiness to return to play and identify those who may be at risk of rerupture. However, athletes may reach these criteria despite ongoing biomechanical deficits when performing these tests. Combining return-to-play criteria with an assessment of movement through 3-dimensional (3D) biomechanics in male field sports athletes to identify risk factors for ACL rerupture has not been explored previously.

Can Biomechanical Testing After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Identify Athletes at Risk for Subsequent ACL Injury to the Contralateral Uninjured Limb?

Background: Athletes are twice as likely to rupture the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on their healthy contralateral knee than the reconstructed graft after ACL reconstruction (ACLR). Although physical testing is commonly used after ACLR to assess injury risk to the operated knee, strength, jump, and change-of-direction performance and biomechanical measures have not been examined in those who go on to experience a contralateral ACL injury, to identify factors that may be associated with injury risk.

Purpose: To prospectively examine differences in biomechanical and clinical performance measures in male athletes 9 months after ACLR between those who ruptured their previously uninjured contralateral ACL and those who did not at 2-year follow-up and to examine the ability of these differences to predict contralateral ACL injury.

Rehabilitation interventions need more than methodological standardisation: an individualised approach.

Objectives: The main aim in the current study was to use a single-subject analysis to profile the physical performance characteristics of individuals within an injured group and a between-group approach to profile the group as a whole. These profiles were then used to inform single-subject and between-group rehabilitation interventions.

Methods: Fifty-three (28 with athletic groin pain and 25 non-injured) Gaelic football players (24.

Changes in the kinetics and kinematics of a reactive cut maneuver after successful athletic groin pain rehabilitation.

Athletic groin pain (AGP) is a chronic, painful condition which is prevalent in players of field sports that require rapid changes of direction. Following successful rehabilitation, systematic changes have been observed in the kinetics and kinematics of pre-planned change of direction maneuvers, providing insight into potential foci for rehabilitation monitoring and for the assessment of interventions. However, changing direction in field sports is often reactive rather than pre-planned, and it is not known whether such post-rehabilitation changes are seen in reactive maneuvers.

Differences in Strength, Patient-Reported Outcomes, and Return-to-Play Rates Between Athletes With Primary Versus Revision ACL Reconstruction at 9 Months After Surgery.

Background: Patient-reported outcomes and return-to-play (RTP) rates are inferior after revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) compared with primary ACLR. Physical properties such as maximal, explosive, and reactive strength influence reinjury and RTP rates after ACLR. No study has compared these outcomes between revision and primary ACLR.

Back to Normal Symmetry? Biomechanical Variables Remain More Asymmetrical Than Normal During Jump and Change-of-Direction Testing 9 Months After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

Background: After anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), athletes have demonstrated performance asymmetries as compared with healthy cohorts, but little research has investigated if biomechanical asymmetries are also different during jump and change-of-direction (CoD) tasks between groups.

Purpose: To identify if differences in magnitude of asymmetry of biomechanical and performance variables exist between these groups.

Study Design: Controlled laboratory study.

Principal Component Analysis of the Associations Between Kinetic Variables in Cutting and Jumping, and Cutting Performance Outcome.

Welch, N, Richter, C, Moran, K, and Franklyn-Miller, A. Principal component analysis of the associations between kinetic variables in cutting and jumping, and cutting performance outcome. J Strength Cond Res 35(7): 1848-1855, 2021-The primary aim of this study was to determine which features within the ground reaction force (GRF) trace during cutting are related to performance outcome in different angled cuts.

Principal Component Analysis of the Biomechanical Factors Associated With Performance During Cutting.

Welch, N, Richter, C, Franklyn-Miller, A, and Moran, K. Principal component analysis of the biomechanical factors associated with performance during cutting. J Strength Cond Res 35(6): 1715-1723, 2021-The main aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between kinematic variables in cutting and performance outcome across different angled cuts through the use of principal component analysis and permutation testing.

Concussion in adolescent rugby union players: comprehensive acute assessment protocol and development of the SSC concussion passport to monitor long-term health.

Introduction: Sports-related concussion (SRC) can be challenging to diagnose, assess and manage. Much of the SRC research is conducted on adults. The assessment of SRC should aim to identify deficits using a detailed multimodal assessment; however, most studies investigating the effects of SRC use diagnostic tools in isolation.

Biomechanical but not timed performance asymmetries persist between limbs 9 months after ACL reconstruction during planned and unplanned change of direction.

Whilst anterior cruciate ligament injury commonly occurs during change of direction (CoD) tasks, there is little research on how athletes execute CoD after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). The aims of this study were to determine between-limb and between-test differences in performance (time) and joint kinematics and kinetics during planned and unplanned CoD. One hundred and fifty-six male subjects carried out 90° maximal effort, planned and unplanned CoD tests in a 3D motion capture laboratory 9 months after ACLR.

Whole-body biomechanical differences between limbs exist 9 months after ACL reconstruction across jump/landing tasks.

Introduction: Previous studies examining jump tasks after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) have focused on performance measures without examining joint kinematic and kinetic variables. The aim of this study was to identify differences in biomechanical and performance measures between limbs across tests 9 months after surgery.

Methods: Four jump tests (double-leg drop jump (DLDJ), single-leg drop jump (SLDJ), single-leg hop for distance (SLHD) and hurdle hop (HH)) were carried out on 156 male subjects in a 3D motion capture laboratory 9 months after surgery.

Resistance training in musculoskeletal rehabilitation: a systematic review.

Objective: To review the efficacy of resistance training (RT) as a therapeutic modality in various musculoskeletal conditions.

Design: Systematic review.

Subjects: Data from 1545 rehabilitation patients who had participated in structured RT programmes were included into the review.

The effect of gait velocity on calcaneal balance at heel strike; Implications for orthotic prescription in injury prevention.

Exercise related lower limb injuries (ERLLI), are common in the recreational and competitive sporting population. Although ERLLI are thought to be multi-factorial in aetiology, one of the critical predisposing factors is known to gait abnormality. There is little published evidence comparing walking and running gait in the same subjects, and no evidence on the effect of gait velocity on calcaneal pronation, even though this may have implications for orthotic prescription and injury prevention.