Abstract

Background: Balance and proprioception of knee are affected by damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of balance rehabilitation interventions with and without visual feedback on balance and proprioception of knee in patients with anterior cruciate ligament injury. Methods: In a randomized clinical trial, 30 individuals with anterior cruciate ligament lesions were randomly by lottery divided into two groups of experimental and control. The quality of balance of the subjects was evaluated by the Berg Balance Scale and their proprioception was recorded using a system consisted of digital photographic, non-reflective markers and analysis with Digimizer software version 5.3.4. The experimental group received the balance rehabilitation interventions with visual feedback. At the end, participants were re-evaluated for balance and proprioception. Both groups performed the balance rehabilitation interventions over 4 weeks and 3 sessions 30 min each. Results: The results of this study showed that absolute error in reconstruction of knee joint after intervention for both angle of 45 degrees and at 90-degree angle, was significantly lower in the visual feedback group (experimental) comparing to the group without visual feedback (control) (p = 0.003 and p = 0.010, respectively). Moreover, Berg Balance Scale scores for both groups were significantly different (p < 0.001) than their pre-experiment scores. Conclusions: Providing visual feedback beside balance rehabilitation interventions, improves balance and proprioception in individuals with ACL lesion. Balance rehabilitation interventions with visual feedback can enhance the static and dynamic balance in various positions and improves position sense and joint mobility. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature.