beneficial and limiting factors for return to work following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction a retrospective cohort study purpose evidencebased advice for return to work rtw after anterior cruciate ligament acl reconstruction is not available therefore the objectives of this study were to determine when patients achieve full rtw and to explore the beneficial and limiting factors for fully rtw after acl reconstructionmethods a retrospective cohort study was performed after acl reconstruction among 185 patients in one hospital data from patient files and a questionnaire were used to explore whether patient injury surgery sports work and rehabilitationrelated factors are beneficial or limiting for fully rtw after acl reconstruction using a backward stepwise logistic regression analysisresults of the 125 68 patients that returned the questionnaire 36 were not part of the working population of the remaining 89 patients 82 patients 92 had returned fully to work at followup the median time to fully rtw was 78 days in the final regression model which explained 29 of the variance a significant or of 54 90 ci 22131 for rtw 78 days was observed for patients performing heavy kneedemanding work compared to patients performing light kneedemanding work in addition a significant and positive or 16 90 ci 1219 for the number of weeks walking with the aid of crutches for rtw 78 days was observed in the final modelconclusion after acl reconstruction 92 of the patients fully return to work at a median time of 78 days the significant predictors for fully rtw 78 days are performing heavy kneedemanding work and a longer period of walking aided with crutches after acl reconstruction