Evaluation of cruciate ligament injuries. A review.

A good system for evaluating the degree of impairment, disability, and handicap of the patient with a cruciate ligament injury includes functional score, activity grading, stability testing, and measurements of performance and strength, all of which are relevant to different aspects of knee function. The symptom-related knee score gives a more differentiated picture of the disability than does a binomial rating of symptoms. A way of grading the disability in an objective way is to use a performance test. This test could also be used for monitoring rehabilitation before full activity has been resumed. The activity grading scale is very useful for grading the handicap.