The negative effects of anterior cruciate ligament injury during stroke rehabilitation

ACL injury post stroke

  • Nawaf Alzamil AlMaarefa University (MU), College of Medicine, Riyadh Saudi Arabia
  • Ahmad Zaheer Qureshi Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, King Fahad Medical City Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • Farooq Azam Rathore Department of Rehabilitation Medicine PNS Shifa Hospital, DHA II, Karachi, Pakistan
  • Sami Ullah Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh Saudi Arabia
Keywords: Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Complications, Length of stay, Musculoskeletal Diseases, Stroke Rehabilitation

Abstract

Musculoskeletal problems are commonly reported after stroke resulting in abnormal gait biomechanics, pain, and limitation in performing activities of daily living. Anterior circulate ligament is the most frequently injured knee ligament accounting for approximately 50% of all ligament injuries; however, post stroke anterior cruciate ligament injury is rarely reported. We present a case of a 58-year-old female admitted for inpatient stoke rehabilitation after a left middle cerebral artery stroke. After gaining considerable functional recovery, she was planned to be discharged in two weeks’ time when she tripped resulting in a torn anterior cruciate ligament on the hemiperetic side. This resulted in increase in the length of stay and loss of functional gains. We discuss the possible mechanisms and the management plan. Patients with stroke should be monitored for musculoskeletal complications and preventive strategies should be devised to protect from possible ligamentous injuries of the knees.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.6.974

How to cite this:
Alzamel N, Qureshi AZ, Rathore FA, Ullah S. The negative effects of anterior cruciate ligament injury during stroke rehabilitation. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(6):1740-1744. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.6.974

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published
2019-10-10
How to Cite
Alzamil, N., Qureshi, A. Z., Rathore, F. A., & Ullah, S. (2019). The negative effects of anterior cruciate ligament injury during stroke rehabilitation: ACL injury post stroke. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 35(6). https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.6.974