ACL Return to Sport Testing
After an ACL injury, getting back to your sport can feel daunting. You may wonder if you are physically ready to perform. Without clear guidance, it can be difficult to know if your body is truly prepared for the demands of your sport. At STAR Performance & Concierge, we help take the guesswork out through ACL Return to Sport Testing.
ACL Return to Sport testing is a very detailed set of tests and measurements to make sure athletes and performers are ready to safely return to their sport. These tests provide objective measurements on strength, mobility, power, balance, and stability. Athletes that pass return to sport testing have a 36% reduction in ACL re-tear and a 19% reduction in tear of the opposite knee (O’Dowd et al, Journal of ISAKOS, 2024). ACL re-tear rate can be as high as 37.5% in certain populations (Wiggins et al, American Journal of Sports Med, 2017), but re-injury rate massively reduces to less than 5% of athletes that pass return to sport testing (Grindem et al, Br J Sports Med, 2016).
At STAR Performance & Concierge we utilize a highly reliable 5 test battery that includes:
- Handheld dynamometry (HHD) – a machine that measures the peak muscle force of the quadriceps so that we can compare your surgical leg to your non-surgical leg. Quadriceps symmetry is the single biggest predictor of successful recovery and reduced re-injury rate
- Hop testing – Includes single leg hop, triple hop, crossover hop, and the 6-meter timed hop. All hops will be completed on both surgical and non-surgical side to compare power and pace in hoping ability
- Y-balance test – A dynamic balance assessment that shows strength, stability, and neuromuscular control.
- Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) – An objective assessment of jumping and landing quality with an emphasis on identifying movement errors in all planes of motion.
- Vail Sport Test: A dynamic test of muscular strength and endurance where the athletes complete multiplanar movements against sport cord resistance.
Let our highly skilled therapists take the guesswork out of your recovery. Contact our team of experts to schedule your assessment.
Grindem H, Snyder-Mackler L, Moksnes H, Engebretsen L, Risberg MA. (2016). Simple decision rules can reduce reinjury risk by 84% after ACL reconstruction: The Delaware-Oslo ACL cohort study. Br J Sports Med., 2016 Jul;50(13):804-8. doi: 10.1136/ Epub 2016 May 9. PMID: 27162233; PMCID: PMC4912389.
O’Dowd DP, Stanley J, Rosenfeldt MP, Walsh S, Twaddle B, De Ruiter L, Crua E, Monk AP, Walsh S. (2024). Reduction in re-rupture rates following implementation of return-to-sport testing after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in 313 patients with a mean follow-up of 50 months. J ISAKOS, 2024 Jun 9(3):264-271. doi: 10.1016/j.jisako.2024.01.005. Epub 2024 Jan 11. PMID: 38218452.
Wiggins AJ, Grandhi RK, Schneider DK, Stanfield D, Webster KE, Myer GD. (2016). Risk of Secondary Injury in Younger Athletes After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Am J Sports Med. 2016 Jul;44(7):1861-76. doi: 10.1177/0363546515621554. Epub 2016 Jan 15. PMID: 26772611; PMCID: PMC5501245.
