Whole Body Vibration Exercise Protocol versus a Standard Exercise Protocol after ACL Reconstruction: A Clinical Randomized Controlled Trial with Short Term Follow-Up.

The suitability and effectiveness of whole body vibration (WBV) exercise in rehabilitation after injury of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was studied using a specially designed WBV protocol. We wanted to test the hypothesis if WBV leads to superior short term results regarding neuromuscular performance (strength and coordination) and would be less time consuming than a current standard muscle strengthening protocol. In this prospective randomized controlled clinical trial, forty patients who tore their ACL and underwent subsequent ligament reconstruction were enrolled. Patients were randomized to the whole body vibration (n=20) or standard rehabilitation exercise protocol (n=20). Both protocols started in the 2(nd) week after surgery. Isometric and isokinetic strength measurements, clinical assessment, Lysholm score, neuromuscular performance were conducted weeks 2, 5, 8 and 11 after surgery. Time spent for rehabilitation exercise was reduced to less than a half in the WBV group. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of clinical assessment, Lysholm score, isokinetic and isometric strength. The WBV group displayed significant better results in the stability test. In conclusion, preliminary data indicate that our whole body vibration muscle exercise protocol seems to be a good alternative to a standard exercise program in ACL-rehabilitation. Despite of its significant reduced time requirement it is at least equally effective compared to a standard rehabilitation protocol. Key pointsIn this prospective randomized controlled clinical trial, we tested the hypothesis if WBV leads to superior short term results regarding neuromuscular performance (strength and coordination) and would be less time consuming than a current standard muscle strengthening protocol in forty patients who underwent ACL reconstruction.Time spent for rehabilitation exercise was reduced to less than a half in the WBV group as compared to the standard exercise group. Both protocols showed no differences regarding clinical assessment, Lysholm score, isokinetic and isometric strength.Despite a more than 50% reduction in time spent for exercise sessions, the WBV group achieved significant better results in the stability test.In conclusion, the presented WBV program can be considered as a practical alternative to a standard exercise program during ACL-rehabilitation.