The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most frequently ruptured knee ligament. This injury leads to numerous repercussions on the patient’s life, such as reducing the patient’s quality of life and having difficulties returning to their preinjury level of sport. The risk of developing osteoarthritis is also increased with an ACLD-deficient (ACLD) knee and even more when treated operatively. These repercussions are especially disabling for women that demonstrate poorer outcomes after rupturing their ACLD and are more at risk of injuring their knee than men. Moreover, women are up to three times more at risk of developing osteoarthrosis that men.
Several studies have analyzed the effect of ACLD on knee gait kinematic. However, none compared the effect of ACLD to a sex specific control group for both women and men although it has been proven that healthy male and female have differences in their knee kinematic. The primary objective of this thesis is to analyze sex specific gait adaptations after an ACL injury.
Two databases were combined after an analysis to eliminate any risk of potential bias. Knee gait kinematic data of 44 injured males (ACLD-M) and 27 injured females (ALCD-F) were compared to 32 healthy males (Control-M) and 37 healthy females (Control-F) respectively.
The results presented in this thesis demonstrate that men with an ACLD have some adaptations in the frontal and transverse plane at the beginning of the swing phase while women with an ACLD present some adaptations in the sagittal and frontal plane during the entire stance phase compared to the sex specific control group.
This thesis demonstrates that gait adaptations after an anterior cruciate ligament injury are sex specific. Going forward, rehabilitation after injury should be adapted according to sex.
| Date | 8 Mar 2024 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Nicola Hagemeister (Supervisor) & Neila Mezghani (Co-supervisor) |
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Lefebvre, K. (Author),
Hagemeister (Supervisor) & Neila Mezghani (Co-supervisor),
8 Mar 2024Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Engineering