PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Cetin, Cem AU - Guner, Rustu AU - Kunduracioglu, Burak AU - ulkar, Bulent TI - Effects of anterior tibial displacement on the proprioceptive functions of soccer players’ knee joints DP - 2006 Apr 01 TA - Neurosciences Journal PG - 99--103 VI - 11 IP - 2 4099 - http://nsj.org.sa/content/11/2/99.short 4100 - http://nsj.org.sa/content/11/2/99.full SO - Neurosciences (Riyadh)2006 Apr 01; 11 AB - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of joint laxity on proprioceptive functions of the knee joints of soccer players. METHODS: In this study, we measured anterior tibial displacements and thresholds to detect the knee joint passive motion of 20 healthy soccer players (18.1+/-1.6 years of age). We performed all the measurements in Autumn 2000 in Ankara, Turkey. We applied the Mann-Whitney U test to analyze the relationship between the anterior tibial displacement and threshold to detect the passive motion (TDPM).RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the TDPM values of the knee joints with insignificant laxity differences at different angles, and direction of motion (p>0.05). At 45 degrees of knee flexion and externally directed motion, we found the TDPM of looser knees to be significantly greater (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Increased knee laxities without any clinical pathologic findings, have negative effects on knee joint proprioception. This is possibly due to the overuse degeneration of the anterior cruciate ligaments, which are the main stabilizers of knee joints.