Samenvatting

The study group performed a systematic review on the effect of neuromuscular training. The investigation focused on patients suffering from ACL injury of the knee, as this is a frequent injury in the field of physiotherapy. In recent years there has been conducted research on neuromuscular training effect of the knee. The study group wanted to make an overview of existing research results on this topic.

In order to retrieve the necessary information on the subject, an article search was performed. Articles dealing with the topic were found through search engines on the Internet, by contacting authors and using the reference list of found articles. The retrieved articles were either included or excluded by using criteria established by the study group. The included articles were analysed for internal validity using the Pedro scale, and used to answer the questions of this thesis project.

Neuromuscular training is used in the rehabilitation of the lower extremities and includes component such as balance, dynamic joint stability, perturbation and plyometric training. The aim of this type of training is to improve the nervous systems ability to generate fast and optimal muscle firing patterns, to decrease joint force, and relearn movement patterns and skills. Research reports decreased proprioceptive sense, longer muscle response time and declined balance of the leg after an ACL injury. This can in turn result in recurrent joint subluxation and deterioration.

From the article analysis one can state that neuromuscular training has a beneficial effect on conservative ACL management, and should be integrated in the rehabilitation program. However, more research is needed to establish the effect of neuromuscular training on ACL reconstructed patients. In addition further investigation on the effect of exercises in a neuromuscular training program is needed.