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Effects of Whole-Body EMS on Post-ACL Reconstruction General Conditioning - A Retrospective Comparative Study

Jia Xin Neo, Kok Hin Chew, Aaron Boon Keng Lim

Background: Electrical muscle stimulation OR Electromyostimulation has long been used in the field of medicine and sports. Most commonly, Electromyostimulation is used to elicit skeletal muscle contraction which has been effectively employed in circumstances such as prevention of muscular atrophy and muscle strengthening. Recently, whole body-EMS has been introduced as a technology that enables the simultaneous muscle activation of up to 16 regions with different dedicated intensities per region. The aim of the present study is to determine the effect of WBEMS on preventing general deconditioning including improving body composition and lower limb muscle recruitment on post Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction patients compared to conventional rehabilitation exercises alone. Design: Retrospective, comparative study. Methods: 17 post- Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction patients’ data were retrieved from their medical records. Patients who had done their rehabilitation with Whole-Body Electromyostimulation were allocated under WholeBody Electromyostimulation while those without were allocated under conventional group. Both groups underwent 6 weeks of a similar rehabilitation program with the WBEMS group having WBEMS superimposed to their exercises 3 times in every two weeks. Data including skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, bilateral thigh lean mass (Affected Side Thigh Lean Mass & Non-Affected Side Thigh Lean Mass) and quadriceps muscle maximum recruitment (Electromyography) were extracted, compared and analyzed. Results: Both groups experienced Skeletal Muscle Mass and Body Fat Mass gain as well as muscle wasting on affected lower limb, differences between pre- and post-intervention for both groups as well as intergroup differences between Whole-Body Electromyostimulation and conventional group remained non-significant. With regards to Electromyography, both groups shown significant improvement over 6 weeks with Whole-Body Electromyostimulation group demonstrated significantly better improvement (p=0.047) with large effect size (Effect Size=1.044). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that superimposing WBEMS with post- Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction rehabilitation for as short as 6 weeks, has beneficial impact on improving operated side quadriceps maximum recruitment, an important factor in preventing quadriceps muscle wasting at early stage of rehabilitation. There were no significant findings on the effect of Whole-Body Electromyostimulation on body composition.