Quantitative assessment of postoperative lower limb edema and knee synovitis by bioimpedance analysis in professional athletes after anterior cruciate ligament surgery

Aim. The paper aims to test bioimpedance analysis for quantitative assessment of postoperative lower limb edema and knee joint effusion after knee surgery. Materials and methods: the paper contains a description of 15 clinical cases of the examination of highly skilled athletes by means of the ABC-02 “MEDASS” metabolic analyzer. Before and at certain time points after the surgery, all athletes were examined with a four-channel and a two-channel system. Edema severity was assessed with an analysis of free fluid in body segments at a frequency of 5 kHz. Then, the local resistance of the knee joint area was assessed using the authors’ method. Five athletes underwent a study of local resistance before and after evacuation of the fluid from the knee joint, with the amount of the fluid being recorded. All obtained data were processed with the “MEDASS” ABC 045 and “MEDASS” ABC 026 software. Results. Segmental bioimpedance analysis showed a regular decrease in the resistance of the limb after surgery with a gradual equalization of parameters between the limbs over the rehabilitation period. Measurement of local resistance of the knee joint area revealed a noticeable increase of 3-26% in segment resistance after the evacuation of 25-30 ml of fluid. Conclusion: The bioimpedance analysis can be used in clinical practice to quantify the dynamics of postoperative edema and the severity of synovitis after knee surgery.