Return to Play after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction among Amateur Soccer Players

Abstract

Objective The aim of the present study is to assess the return to play among amateur soccer league players after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Materials and Method The surgical protocols of ACL reconstruction surgeries performed in a sports medicine clinic from July 1st, 2013, to June 30th, 2014, were included in the study. Only the charts of amateur soccer league players who played once or twice a week were selected. The follow-up time was calculated as the number of months between surgery and the telephone survey. At the follow-up, the current status of the soccer playing was recorded. Those patients who were no longer playing in a team were asked what kind of sport they were currently practicing, as well as the main reason for not returning to team playing. Results A total of 61 (25.6%) patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean follow-up time was of 22.4 ± 3.4 months. At the follow-up, 30 (49.1%) patients were playing in amateur soccer teams. Among the patients who were no longer playing in a team, 19 (61.2%) were playing soccer occasionally, 11 (35.4%) were practicing other sports, and 1 developed a sedentary life style. The reasons for not returning to team playing were: fear of reinjury in 26%; knee symptoms in 26%; lack of confidence in the knee in 23%, family or job commitments in 23%; and not being eligible to participate in competitive sports in 2%. Conclusion After an average of two years of ACL reconstruction, only half of the amateur soccer league players return to play.

Return to Play and Performance After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review of Recent Evidence

“…All discrepancies were resolved following consultation with the first author (MM). In terms of study design, there were six cohort studies [30,32,38,40,44,45], five case series [29,31,33,34,37], three case-control studies [39,42,43], two prospective cohort studies [35,36], and one descriptive epidemiology study [41], and level II [35,36], level III [30,32,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], and level IV [29,31,33,34,37] of evidence were recorded. Level II evidence refers to prospective cohort studies, level III of evidence refers to case-control and cohort studies, while level IV evidence refers to case series.…”

“…Athletes most commonly competed in the prestigious European soccer leagues, including England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium, but also in the United States, Australia, and Chile. Ten [30-33, 35, 37, 38, 41, 42, 44] out of 17 investigations examined elite soccer players exclusively, whilst there were also national-level [36,43], amateur [29,45], recreational [40,43], and youth athletes [36,40,43]. Concerning ACLR, in nine studies, soccer players underwent both primary and revision of ACLR [32,33,35,36,38,[42][43][44][45].…”

“…Moreover, Szymski et al [45] showed that RTP time in elite, semi-professional, and amateur athletes with a history of primary and revision of ACLR was 337 days or 11.1 months. Further, five studies [29,34,39,40,43] addressed reasons why athletes did not return to soccer after ACLR. Most importantly, knee-related issues [29,39,40,43] and fear of reinjury [29,34,39,43] were most commonly cited as reasons for not returning to soccer.…”

Clinical Outcomes After ACL Reconstruction in Soccer (Football, Futbol) Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The majority of the articles that were included in the review were of Level 3 to 4 evidence; 1 of 32 (3.1%) was Level 1 evidence, 44 11 of 32 of studies were Level 2, 2,5,6,9,10,14,20,24,64,75,77 11 of 32 (34.4%) of studies were Level 3 evidence, 1,3,21,22,24,25,52,54,60,61,71 and 9 of 32 (28.1%) of studies were Level 4 evidence. 4,12,33,35,38,58,62,74,80 The outcomes of 3112 soccer players after ACLR were available for analysis. The reported number of male athletes who underwent ACLR was 1780, compared with 1181 female athletes (Table 1).…”

“…The range of mean age of soccer players who underwent ACLR was 15.7 to 29.7 years, range of mean height was 1.68 to 1.82 m, and range of mean BMI was 22.8 to 24.9 kg/m 2 . Of the studies that reported the type of graft used for the reconstruction, 14 of 32 (43.8%) studies used autografts 1,[3][4][5]9,14,20,33,38,44,54,60,64,74 ; the 2 most commonly used grafts included 1600 hamstring tendon (HT) and 663 bone-patellar-tendon-bone (BPTB) grafts. Using the concomitant procedures data, the range of patients with articular cartilage involvement was 6.5% to 30.4% and meniscal involvement was 35.6% to 60.0% (Table 2).…”