Abstract

Introduction: the increase of the physical activity in the current population has produced a rise in the number of injuries. One of the structures that gets damaged more often is the anterior cruciate ligament. A physical therapy treatment is essential to recover the pre-surgical functionality levels. Objective: to know the scientific evidence relating to the different physiotherapy programs and techniques used after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Material and method: a systematic review was carried out, including controlled clinical trials either randomized or not, published since 01/01/2002 to 30/06/2012 in Medline, Cochrane Lybrary, Science Direct and PEDro, and which included the physiotherapy treatment after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in adult people. Non-experimental trials were excluded, as well as basic research trials and the ones that included functional orthesis or compared surgical techniques. The search was limited to Spanish, English and French languages. The selection and methodological assessment of the articles has been done by two independent reviewers. The methodological quality of the clinical trials was evaluated using the PEDro scale. Results: the search initially identified 681 articles that met the selection criteria. After removing duplicates, reading the full text and evaluate the methodological quality of the articles selected, the review was finally reduced to 23 articles. Conclusions: there are enough trials showing the effectiveness of different physiotherapy programs, the beginning of early weight-bearing and the recovering of muscular strength without affecting the graft. In the same way, they provide positive results in the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and the inclusion of proprioceptive exercises in the physiotherapy programs. The methodological rigour of most of them is limited, so, to confirm these results it would be necessary to count on clinical trials with a higher methodological level.