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Return to play guidelines

Return to play guidelines after anterior cruciate ligament surgery

G Myklebust, R Bahr

Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education, Oslo, Norway

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
G Myklebust
Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education, Oslo, Norway; grethe.myklebust@nih.no

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Doctors should question whether return to high level pivoting sports is in the athlete’s best interest after ACL reconstruction

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Abbreviations: ACL, anterior cruciate ligament; OA, osteoarthritis

Keywords: anterior cruciate ligament; knee; return to play guidelines

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

"When can I play again, Doc?" is the emotionally charged, quintessential question asked by nearly every athlete after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Invariably, the same question is one of the first asked by parents, team mates, coaches, and—in the case of the high profile athlete—the media. This implies that, to meet the expectations of the athlete and his/her surroundings, swift surgical intervention and accelerated rehabilitation becomes a priority. Therefore it is not surprising if the time to return to play is the standard by which orthopaedic surgeons measure themselves and are measured in sports circles.

Measured by this standard, sports medicine has made giant advances in ACL treatment programmes during the previous decades. We have progressed from open surgery to arthroscopic surgery, from extended casting to short term bracing, from conservative to accelerated rehabilitation programmes, and from long hospital stays to outpatient surgery. When an . . . [Full text of this article]

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