Influence of Leg Dominance on Clinical Assessment of Knee Laxity in Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injuries: A Systematic Review

Background: Whether the leg dominance influences the side-to–side difference of knee laxity in healthy and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction patients remains unclear. Purpose: To perform a systematic review of clinical or other study types of evidence on the effect of leg dominance on side-to-side knee laxity. Study design: Systematic review; Methods: A systematic review was performed using the PubMed, Google Scholar and Ovid search engines. Inclusion criteria for the first part were any study except animal and cadaveric studies on healthy subjects comparing left to right knee laxity without any knee injury. For the second part, the inclusion criteria were involving patients of after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, which compared the injured and contralateral side of knee laxity. Methodological quality of the final studies recorded leg dominance was assessed using Critical Appraisal Skill Program (CASP) tool. Conclusion: the influence of leg dominance on side-to-side difference of knee laxity is still confirmed by this systematic review.