Todd D, Abraha T, Britten K, Lehmann A, Romero M, Tate J; Department of Physical Therapy, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence the time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy rehabilitation following anterior cruciate ligament surgery. SUBJECTS: Ninety-six subjects between the ages of 15 and 58 years old with a first time anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction were used for this study. All subjects underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction between Jan 1999 to Aug 2001. All of the subjects underwent rehabilitation within the same health care system. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective chart review was conducted to obtain data from a Documentation Tool completed by the patients’ physical therapists and information collected from patients’ charts. ANALYSES: Independent t-tests were used to compare length of time between initial visit and discharge for patients based on the following: 1) participation or nonparticipation in pre-surgery education or strengthening program; 2) considered to have an acute or chronic anterior cruciate ligament injury prior to surgery, and 3) between males and females. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare data in patients with different lifestyles prior to surgery. A Pearson product moment correlation was used to compare the relationship between length of time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy rehabilitation following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and total number of physical therapy visits and age. Alpha levels of 0.05 were used to test for significance. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found between length of time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy rehabilitation and the following: participation in pre-surgery/education program, lifestyle, acute or chronic injury, and gender. A moderate positive correlation (r=0.53, p £ 0.01) was found between length of time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy rehabilitation and total number of physical therapy visits. A small but non-significant negative correlation (r=-0.10, p=0.31) was found between age and length of time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy. CONCLUSIONS: For this group, no significant factors that influence length of time from initial visit to discharge from physical therapy rehabilitation following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and participation in pre-surgery/education program, lifestyle, time of injury, age, gender, and total number of physical therapy visits were found. FUNDING SOURCE: None.

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