Introduction The main purpose of sports medicine rehabilitation is to implement processes and procedures that should return the athletes to their previous level of functioning in the shortest possible period. The extent, type and duration of the rehabilitation process depend on severity and type of the injury.

Aim To confirm the success of conservative treatment in circumstances where clinical diagnostic methods are divided over whether to take a conservative or surgical treatment.

Material and Method This study included six athletes from different sports with Laesio ligamenti genus cruciati anterioris (ACL) (partial rupture), who were divided depending on the clinical examination into two groups: group A treated conservatively and group B treated surgically. In order to improve the success of the conservative treatment we designed the study protocol with specific movements and exercises for the athletes, which were performed under the control of the sports medical doctor to restore the functions of locomotion to the possible extent.

About 30 minutes before the execution of the exercises, the stages of warming and stretching were performed.

Each repeated exercise was followed by an active break or active recovery of 2 minutes (stretching, easy running and jumping in place).

Results The rehabilitation program of recovery and strengthening of knee cross ligaments were based on the following principles: progressiveness and assimilation in the performance of specially designed exercises in terms of the type of exercise, cycle, series, number of repetitions. All athletes who successfully passed the initial stage of the rehabilitation, continued to the next stage of rehabilitation. The exercises in this study protocol have systemic effects.

Key components in this rehabilitation program were: muscle rehabilitation; increased locomotors elasticity and firmness; improving of the proprioreception and cardiovascular sport opportunities.

Conclusions The ACL injury is the most common cause of long-term absence of the athletes from the sports ground. The injured athletes with diagnosis of partial lesion of ACL with no reliable indication for surgical treatment can be treated in a conservative way. Always at employing such conservative treatment special attention should be paid to gradual and progressive rehabilitation procedures. At least 6 months are usually necessary for the athletes to return to the sports activity. However, if undergoing conservative treatment the period of recovery is longer (1-2 months) than rehabilitation after surgical treatment due to the precaution of preformed rehabilitation protocol.

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Abstract P-52 Figure 1

Protocol for rehabilitation process Type 1 exercises (sprint at 40 metres with abruptly stopping – deceleration distance up to 5 metres). Type 2 exercises (sprint at 40 metres with abruptly stopping – deceleration distance up to 2.5 metres). Type 3 exercises (run with barriers at 40 metres – a barrier is placed at a distance of every 10 metres and at the height of 50 centimetres).

References

1. Oliver Bojceski, SPORTSKI POVREDI.Skopje: Prosvetno delo; 2011.

2. Peter Bruckner and Karim Khan, CLINICAL SPORTS MEDICINE. 4th ed.McGraw-Hill: Toronto; 1999.

3. Dragoljub Banovik and coworkers, POVREDE U SPORTU. Belgrade: Medicinska knjiga; 2006.