Dr Clare Ardern (Sweden) shares the latest on Return to Play – World Congress Consensus Statement

Dr Clare Ardern is a sports physiotherapy researcher at Linkoping University in Sweden. She carries Australia’s prestigious NHMRC’s top scholarship for clinician researchers – the 4-year Fellowship Award. You may know of her publications that highlight the relatively low return to play rates after ACL reconstruction. In this podcast, she addresses return to play more broadly. From 12-15th October this year she will be a keynote speaker at Sports Medicine Australia’s conference. You can follow that via BJSM Twitter #SMAConf16 and Facebook. She was interviewed by Dr Christian Barton, who is a well-published physiotherapist PhD as well. He serves as BJSM Deputy Editor and the Editor responsible for Social Media (small job! easy!). Timeline: 1:00m - Where did the Return To Play Consensus come from? 2:00m - Defining Return to Play; what does it mean in different settings 3:00m - The difference in RTP for o/c acute – removal from play? 4: 10 - Decision making – how should the return to play decision be made? 3:30m - Return to Play is a continuum that requires meticulous planning 4:00m - When can the athlete return to a pre-injury (or better) level of performance? 4:30m - What is the evidence for return to play decisions? Spoiler alert! – It’s limited. 5:20m - Taking the emphasis of the ‘one day’ that players focus on to be back at sport. The concept of a continuum (from when you first see the athlete). 6:45 - Return to play and returning to perform at the previous level. Are there important differences? What can clinicians do to help players get back to that level? 8:30m - Does ‘Return to Play’ end? It’s very different for different athletes. 10:10m - Should athletes have ACL reconstruction after ACL injury? What does the research show? 11:40 - Clare’s perspective on the return to play data after ACL reconstruction in the non-elite players. 12:15 - An example of a player in the English Premier League who was ACL deficient.