Is There a Difference in Graft Motion for Bone-Tendon-Bone and Hamstring Autograft ACL Reconstruction at 6 Weeks and 1 Year?

Background: Bone-patellar tendon-bone (BTB) grafts are generally believed to heal more quickly than soft tissue grafts after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, but little is known about the time course of healing or motion of the grafts within the bone tunnels.

Hypothesis: Graft-tunnel motion will be greater in hamstring (HS) grafts compared with BTB grafts and will be less at 1 year than at 6 weeks.

Study Design: Controlled laboratory study.

Increased lateral tibial slope predicts high-grade rotatory knee laxity pre-operatively in ACL reconstruction.

Purpose: To determine the influence of anatomical features of both the tibia and femur on quantitative pivot shift of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-injured patients.

Methods: Fifty-three consecutive ACL-injured patients (mean age 26 ± 10.1 years, 36 males) who underwent ACL reconstruction were prospectively enrolled.

The effects of femoral graft placement on cartilage thickness after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Altered joint motion has been thought to be a contributing factor in the long-term development of osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction. While many studies have quantified knee kinematics after ACL injury and reconstruction, there is limited in vivo data characterizing the effects of altered knee motion on cartilage thickness distributions. Thus, the objective of this study was to compare cartilage thickness distributions in two groups of patients with ACL reconstruction: one group in which subjects received a non-anatomic reconstruction that resulted in abnormal joint motion and another group in which subjects received an anatomically placed graft that more closely restored normal knee motion.

The effect of femoral tunnel placement on ACL graft orientation and length during in vivo knee flexion.

Anatomically placed grafts are believed to more closely restore the function of the ACL. This study measured the effect of femoral tunnel placement on graft orientation and length during weight-bearing flexion. Both knees of twelve patients where the graft was placed near the anteroproximal border of the ACL and ten where the graft was placed near the center of the ACL were imaged using MR.

Femoral tunnel placement during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: an in vivo imaging analysis comparing transtibial and 2-incision tibial tunnel-independent techniques.

Background: Recent studies have questioned the ability of the transtibial technique to place the anterior cruciate ligament graft within the footprint of the anterior cruciate ligament on the femur. There are limited data directly comparing the abilities of transtibial and tibial tunnel-independent techniques to place the graft anatomically at the femoral attachment site of the anterior cruciate ligament in patients.

Hypothesis: Because placement with the tibial tunnel-independent technique is unconstrained by the tibial tunnel, it would allow for more anatomic tunnel placement compared with the transtibial technique.