Functional and experimental tests for knee function for knee joint impairments in children and adolescents: a narrative review

Background: Physical exercise and sports participation substantially contribute to the health and well-being of individuals, motor skills development, and emotional maturation. However, injuries occur during sports activities. In case of injury, movement and sports activities are restricted, and health professionals agree that patients should return to physical activity as soon as possible. Therefore, researching experimental, functional, and outcome tests to eval-uate risk of knee injuries and possibility to return to sports is indicated.
Methods: MedLine and Embase were explored with the main search terms children/adoles-cents, knee structures, and functional/experimental, outcome tests, following the PRISMA statement. The target population comprised children, and adolescents in need for medical in-tervention due to injury, impairment, or pain in their knee structures. The risk of bias was as-sessed with JBI Checklists.
Results: Thirteen out of 487 identified studies were included. These studies were published from 2008 to 2021. The analysis revealed the utilization of several single-limb and double-limb tests already in use for adult populations. This observation also applied to the utilized force measurements.
Conclusion: The recommendations based on the literature review indicate the usage of the following tests to complete daily clinical practice: The Single-Leg Vertical Jump, and the Single-Leg Speedy Jumps. The Vertical Jump has higher discriminative quality compared to horizon-tal jumps. The Speedy Jumps should be included for their demanding character, that assess several qualities of jump performance. Thus, these tests will help to provide a more global picture of an injured knee and may be associated to the standard assessment of gait parame-ters using a 3D-Motion Capture Analysis.