Quadriceps Function Prior to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Patients who are diagnosed with an isolated tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and scheduled for arthroscopic reconstruction using bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft will be recruited to participate. All subjects will be invited to participate in 2 weeks (2 supervised sessions per week) prior to their surgery. Each session will include supervised therapeutic exercises. Subjects will be randomly assigned to receive continuous transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) during each session or knee joint cryotherapy prior to each exercise session. The investigators will measure quadriceps function before and after this 2-week intervention (both sessions occur prior to reconstruction surgery). This study will also have a true control group that will not receive either exercise of modality intervention. The investigators will collect subjective and objective outcomes data at regularly scheduled post-operative visits.

Official Title
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Quadriceps Function Prior to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Conditions
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Rupture of Anterior Cruciate Ligament

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: cryotherapy
* Other: TENS


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Complete ACL rupture Age 15-55 Exclusion Criteria: Persons who cannot tolerate knee joint TENS. Persons who have a known allergy to cryotherapy Patients who are pregnant or who plan on getting pregnant during the 12-month follow-up period.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 15 Years
Maximum Age: 55 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: knee joint cryotherapy<br>20 minutes of knee joint cryotherapy - ice bag application | Other: cryotherapy<br>* 20 minutes of knee joint cryotherapy - ice bag application<br>|
| Experimental: TENS<br>continuous TENS for duration of the 1 hour exercise session | Other: TENS<br>* continuous use of TENS during the exercise session<br>|
| No Intervention: No intervention<br>no modality intervention; just exercise | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Quadriceps muscle strength and inhibition using the quadriceps central activation ratio |  | Day 15 | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Quadriceps H-reflex testing |  | Day 15 | 
| International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Joint Evaluation |  | Day 15 | 
| Visual Analog Scale |  | Day 15 | 
| Tegner Activity Rating |  | Day 15 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Anterior cruciate ligament, ACL