Knee kinematics and kinetics during gait, step and hop in males with a 16 years old ACL injury compared with matched controls

The objective of this study was to compare subjects who sustained an ACL injury during soccer 16 years ago with a control group with regard to knee kinematics and kinetics of gait, step activity and cross over hop. Secondly, in the injured subjects, the purpose was to study the impact on kinematics and kinetics of characteristics such as operative status, meniscal resection, being symptomatic, having knee extensor weakness and of having radiographic knee OA. Data from a 3-dimensional gait analysis system (VICON) were used to calculate kinetics and kinematics during gait, step activity and cross over hop of 12 male subjects who had an anterior cruciate ligament injury 16 years earlier. Twelve uninjured subjects matched for age, sex, BMI and activity level served as controls. No significant differences in knee kinematics and kinetics between the ACL group and the control group were found. The variability of some parameters of step and all parameters of hop activity was generally larger in the ACL injured subjects compared with the controls. The ACL injured subjects had a significantly worse clinical status compared with the controls. Reduced knee extension strength was associated with joint moment reductions especially during step activity and cross over hop. Despite a significantly worse clinical status, as determined by self-report and isokinetic strength testing, no significant differences were seen in knee joint kinetics and kinematics in an ACL injured group 16 years after injury compared with a matched control group. The variation was larger among the ACL injured subjects indicating the need for larger study groups in gait and movement analysis in long-term follow-up of ACL injury.