INTRODUCTION:
Soccer is frequently practiced in our country, causing a high incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. Often, the surgical treatment is required in order to enable the patient to return to the practice and the hamstring grafts are being widely used as the main choice for the surgical technique. There are very few articles in the literature concerning the return to amateur soccer practice after this kind of treatment.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the rate of return to soccer practice among amateur athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction, using the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons as grafts.
METHODS:
Ninety seven patients undergoing ACL reconstruction were evaluated with a minimum follow-up of 2 years. The evaluation was made by the Lysholm Scale and directly questioning regarding return to sports, with emphasis on the return to the practice of amateur soccer.
RESULTS:
60.8% of the operated patients returned to playing soccer. Among those who did not return to soccer practice, 9.3% continued to practice other sports activities, however this fact was not related to the knee injury. Other 11.4% completely stopped playing sports due to symptoms directly related to the operated knee. A large number (18.5%) of patients reported that they did not return to soccer practice due to many other causes related to psychological factors such as loss of motivation, fear of a re-injury, and change of lifestyle.
CONCLUSION:
The rate of patients who do not return to soccer practice after surgical treatment for psychological reasons is high. Therefore, there is a need for further studies in this field in order to best select patients and thus improve surgical indications and consequently outcomes of the treatment of ACL injury.
sports injuries; knee injuries; rehabilitation