Telerehabilitation for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction - TAR Program in Adolescents

Summary

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are common in adolescents and its prevalence has increased over the years, especially with more adolescents engaging in physical activities and competitive sports. Standard of care for these injuries would be an ACL reconstruction (ACLR) to allow return to function and sports and reduce the risk of post-traumatic arthritis and recurrent knee injuries. Rehabilitation post-ACLR is crucial to optimise surgical outcomes and prevent re-rupture of ACL. However, good compliance to rehabilitation is often a challenge for patients and healthcare providers.

Telerehabilitation for this group of patients may help to augment rehabilitation by improving patient compliance and overcome barriers to behavioural change often observed in traditional in-person physiotherapy. It can also allow remote monitoring and provide feedback to patients during exercises. In addition, it is a useful tool during pandemic when in-person visits are not possible. Currently, very few studies have evaluated the use of telerehabilitation with remote monitoring for ACLR, especially in adolescents. The use of home-based telerehabilitation post ACLR may be key to improving patient motivation and exercise compliance in adolescents.

For this pilot study, the intervention group will undergo the TAR program in addition to standard care, which involves self-administered exercises in initial 12 weeks post ACLR using a mobile application. The mobile application will detect key landmarks on the body for human pose estimation. Participants will be able to perform their exercises with real-time feedback given, allowing for proper execution of the exercises. Exercise adherence, range of motion and pain scores will be tracked via the application and therapists are able to monitor via the online dashboard. The control group will undergo standard in-person physiotherapy.

Primary aim of this study is to examine exercise adherence in TAR program versus standard care post ACLR in adolescents. Secondary aims of this study are to examine the effects of TAR program on knee strength, range, function, quality of life, treatment satisfaction, self-determination and number of face-to-face rehabilitation sessions required after ACLR.

Conditions

• Telerehabilitation
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament

Interventions

DEVICE

Telerehabilitation TAR program using a mobile application

Participants in this study arm will use a mobile application which allows participants to perform their home exercises with real-time feedback given, allowing for proper execution of exercises, on top of standard care.

OTHER

Standard rehabilitation sessions

Participants in this control group will attend standard in person rehabilitation sessions with home exercise program given as per standard care.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• KK Women's and Children's Hospital

  lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

• Siao Hui Toh, PhD · KK Women's and Children's Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

20 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-02-15

Primary Completion

2024-10-31

Completion

2025-04-30

Countries

• Singapore

Study Locations