Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament rupture and osteoathritis are one of the most common injuries and diseases of the knee joint. They both have a strong affect on body balance. Whole-body vibration is a proven therapy that has a positive effect on balance, posture, muscle performance and functional abilities. Whole-body vibration devices have been receiving a lot of attention lately as they seem easy and safe to use in a clinical practice. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to present and compare the effects of whole-body vibration on balance in patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and in individuals with osteoarthritis. Methods: The review was carried out through the databases PubMed, Science Direct and Cobbis. The literature was searched in English with keywords whole body vibration AND acl and whole body vibration AND osteoarthrosis. Articles older than 10 years were excluded. Results: There were eight studies icluded in this review. Four of them studied patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and four individuals with osteoarthritis. The results of all included studies showed positive effects of whole-body vibration on balance. Four studies have only studied whole-body vibration, while others have included other exercise programs. Three studies focused on people after ACL reconstruction showed a significant improvement in balance. Only one study failed to demonstrate statistically significant effects of whole-body vibration. Balance significantly improved in all studies focused on people with osteoarthritis. Vibration parameters varied considerably between individual studies. Discussion and conclusion: Using functional and laboratory protocols, whole body vibration has been found to improve balance in both ACL reconstruction individuals and those with knee osteoarthritis. It makes sense to use it in combination with other exercise programs to achive the best results. Whole body vibration has been shown to be very useful in individuals after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction when done for at least 4 weeks. A single whole-body vibration exercise has no effect on balance in this group of studies. Whole body vibration has a significant effect on improving balance even for people with knee arthrosis. However, the exercise must last for a long time to achieve good results. Vibration with frequency between 30 and 45 Hz proved to be the most optimal. This topic is still poorly researched to date, so it would be useful in the future to do a review of researches that are more focused on exercise through whole-body vibration and its impact on balance.
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