ReviewSports health
Muscle Atrophy After ACL Injury: Implications for Clinical Practice.
Review in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06341868 (Dynamic Gait-Synchronous Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction), which is not on this map. Cited by 54 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Dynamic Gait-Synchronous Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Factors Influencing Consultant Knee Surgeons' Decision Making in Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury Management in Athletes: An International Delphi Study.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Neuromuscular contributions to inter-limb quadriceps strength asymmetries across contraction types in healthy adults.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Patterns of Muscle Health in Single- and Multi-Site Chronic Pain: A UK Biobank Normative Modeling Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Changes in Muscle Volume Asymmetries Among Lower Extremity Muscles From Baseline Through 12 Months After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction With Quadriceps Tendon Autograft.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Single-fiber morphometry and spatial transcriptomics reveal selective oxidative muscle fiber atrophy in non-metastatic breast cancer.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Muscle atrophy after ACL reconstruction involves molecular mechanisms beyond unloading.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2026Article
- Macrophages, muscle stem cells, and repair; immunohistochemical characteristics in muscle growth impairments in children with cerebral palsy.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Article
- Early Unloading After ACL Rupture and Prior to Surgical Restabilization in Mice Slows Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Progression.Cartilage · 2026Article
- The Clinical Utility of Strength Measures in Predicting Patient Progression Following ACLR.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Preoperative systemic inflammation and muscle fatty infiltration are prognostic factors for quadriceps atrophy following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Relationships between diffusion tensor parameters and measures of skeletal muscle fiber size and strength after anterior cruciate ligament injury.Magnetic resonance imaging · 2025Article
- The beneficial and detrimental effects of exercise and unloading on OA progression after anterior cruciate ligament injury.Connective tissue research · 2025Review
- Implications and Applications of Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy in Therapy, Rehabilitation and Athletic Training-An Outlook to Future Potential Applications.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- The impact of exercise therapy on rehabilitation outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a network meta-analysis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Knee functional outcomes and quadriceps hypotrophy after ACL reconstruction: a prospective observational study.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Redox signaling‑mediated muscle atrophy in ACL injury: Role of physical exercise (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2025Review
- A cross-sectional study on peroneal muscle echogenicity changes and their effects on balance functions in individuals with chronic ankle instability.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Selected Nutrients to Oppose Muscle Disuse Following Arthroscopic Orthopedic Surgery: A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Four-week Nordic hamstring exercise intervention for individuals with ACL reconstruction via hamstrings tendon autograft: feasibility of a pilot randomized controlled trial.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextDistinct from the muscle atrophy that develops from inactivity or disuse, atrophy that occurs after traumatic joint injury continues despite the patient being actively engaged in exercise. Recognizing the multitude of factors and cascade of events that are present and negatively influence the regulation of muscle mass after traumatic joint injury will likely enable clinicians to design more effective treatment strategies. To provide sports medicine practitioners with the best strategies to optimize muscle mass, the purpose of this clinical review is to discuss the predominant mechanisms that control muscle atrophy for disuse and posttraumatic scenarios, and to highlight how they differ. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Articles that reported on disuse atrophy and muscle atrophy after traumatic joint injury were collected from peer-reviewed sources available on PubMed (2000 through December 2019). Search terms included the following: STUDY
designClinical review. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 5.
resultsWe highlight that (1) muscle atrophy after traumatic joint injury is due to a broad range of atrophy-inducing factors that are resistant to standard resistance exercises and need to be effectively targeted with treatments and (2) neurological disruptions after traumatic joint injury uncouple the nervous system from muscle tissue, contributing to a more complex manifestation of muscle loss as well as degraded tissue quality.
conclusionAtrophy occurring after traumatic joint injury is distinctly different from the muscle atrophy that develops from disuse and is likely due to the broad range of atrophy-inducing factors that are present after injury. Clinicians must challenge the standard prescriptive approach to combating muscle atrophy from simply prescribing physical activity to targeting the neurophysiological origins of muscle atrophy after traumatic joint injury.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.