BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1545226
This article is part of the Research TopicOvercoming Hurdles in ACL Injury Recovery: Multidisciplinary Strategies for Enhanced Return to SportView all articles
Side-hop test can detect deficits in knee functional ability in male athletes following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction compared to a control group during a battery test performance
Provisionally accepted
- Ospedale Galeazzi S.p.A, Milan, Italy
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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess whether a jump battery test can distinguish between anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed patients and control subjects, and to investigate which tests can detect differences in jumping performance between the two groups.Methods: 30 male athletes aged 18 to 50 years matched for sex, age and activity level to a control group of 30 healthy individuals were examined one year after primary ACL reconstruction.Jumping ability was instrumentally assessed by an infrared optical acquisition system using a test battery including mono-and bipodalic vertical jumps, and a side-hop test. Differences in activity level and jump performance between ACL patients and healthy subjects have been assessed.Results: The limb used in jump test significantly influenced counter-movement jump (effect size=0.0145, p=0.0002), drop-jump (effect size=0.0279, p<0.0001), and side-hop performance (effect size=0.0029, p=0.002), showing the highest performance for dominant limb on nondominant limb in healthy subjects, and for uninjured limb on ACL reconstructed limb in ACLreconstructed patients, in all monopodalic tests. The effect of the intervention was significant only for side-hop test (effect size=0.1200, p=0.002), with ACL-reconstructed limb and uninjured limb in ACL-reconstructed patients showing a lower side-hop performance compared to non-dominant limb (p=0.014) and dominant limb (p=0.009), respectively.The capacity to perform side-hop tests was significantly affected in male athletes who had undergone ACL reconstruction compared to control group one year after surgery. Side-hop test can help detecting functional deficits following ACL surgery, thus contributing to estimate athletes' lower limb recovery capacity.
Keywords: Anterior Cruciate Ligament, ACL reconstruction, activity level, Vertical jump, Battery test
Received: 14 Dec 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Legnani, Faraldi, Del Re, Peretti and Ventura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Claudio Legnani, Ospedale Galeazzi S.p.A, Milan, Italy
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