A comparison of star excursion balance test reach distances between ACL deficient patients and asymptomatic controls

Herrington, LC; Hatcher, J; Hatcher, A; Mcnicholas, MJ

Abstract

ACL injury has been associated with a decrease in proprioceptive performance and specifically postural
control. Tests of postural control have been criticised for not being sufficiently challenging. The Star Excursion
Balance Test (SEBT) has been proposed to offer sufficient challenge to be a sensitive test for detecting
performance deficits related to pathology. The purpose of this study was to determine if decrements SEBT
reach distance is associated with ACL deficiency (ACLD). Twenty five ACLD patients ACLD (17 male and 8
female, mean age 30 (SD 4.5) years) and twenty five matched controls were examined carrying out the SEBT.
Factorial ANOVA showed the main effects of limb (p=0.006) and direction (pb0.001) and interaction of limb
and direction (p=0.015) all had significant differences between the groups. Further analysis revealed
significant differences between the control group and the ACLD limb for the limb movement directions of
anterior (p=0.0032), lateral (p=0.005), posterior-medial (p=0.0024) and medial (p=0.001). There were also
significant differences between the control limbs and uninjured limb of the patients for the directions of
medial (p=0.001) and lateral (p=0.001). ACLD patients appear to have deficiencies in their dynamic postural
control when compared to normal asymptomatic subjects. Interestingly, in the ACLD patients, their uninjured
leg show deficits compared to the control in two of the four directions the ACLD leg was deficient, this may
be indicative of a postural control deficit in these patients, which may have predisposed to the ACL injury and
would warrant further study.

Citation

Herrington, L., Hatcher, J., Hatcher, A., & Mcnicholas, M. A comparison of star excursion balance test reach distances between ACL deficient patients and asymptomatic controls. ˜The œKnee (Amsterdam. Online), 16, 149-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2008.10.004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Deposit Date: Oct 26, 2009
• Journal: The Knee
• Print ISSN: 0968-0160
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Pages: 149-152
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2008.10.004
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2008.10.004