Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Prevention Training In Athletes: A Systematic Review Of Current Evidence On Secondary Injury Prevention

Around 175,000 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions were performed each year in the United States (Spindler & Wright, 2008). After one year of surgery, 66% of the athletes were able to participate in a modified or full competition (Ardern et al., 2011) and 55% could return to competition at their pre-injury level (Ardern et al., 2014). However, athletes who return to high levels of sport are 30 to 40 times more likely to suffer a second ACL injury than an uninjured athlete (Wiggins et al., 2016). It is reported that nearly 1 in 3 to 4 young, active athletes will sustain an ipsilateral or contralateral ACL injury after returning to sports (Allen et al., 2016). The current review aims to determine if current ACL secondary prevention training or programs have a positive influence on the re-injury rate, the clinical or functional outcomes, or the risk of re-injury in athletes.