After a patient has undergone ACL surgery, rehabilitation is bread and butter in many physiotherapy/sports medicine clinics. Many BJSM podcast listeners will be expert in this role. If you are less expert and wondering if there is an ‘optimum’ way to guide the patient back to sport, Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller provides some food for thought.

He discusses some novel ways of assessing a patient’s progress after ACL reconstruction, advocates for the use of video in the clinic, and shares the dynamic tests he uses before allowing a player to return to sport. He shares exercises that both test, and help rehabilitate athletes in this setting.

Dr Franklyn-Miller is a sports physician at the Sports Surgery Clinic in Dublin, Ireland. He has published widely in sports medicine and his book, Clinical Sports Anatomy (2011), co-authored with Eanna Falvey and Peter Brukner, is an international best-seller. You can follow him on Twitter @AFranklynMiller and his blog provides great resources (www.drAndyFranklyMiller.com) including a further series of podcasts.

See also:

His previous podcasts on BJSM relating to running injuries (http://bit.ly/1bqMh8C) and groin pain (http://bit.ly/1fo2TAW).

Consensus criteria for defining ‘successful outcome’ after ACL injury and reconstruction: a Delaware-Oslo ACL cohort investigation: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2013/07/23/bjsports-2013-092299.full

Lower extremity performance following ACL rehabilitation in the KANON-trial: impact of reconstruction and predictive value at 2 and 5 years: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/47/15/980.full