The presence of concomitant intra-articular injuries and bone bruise does not affect pre-operative knee pain and symptoms in patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Purpose: Increased knee pain at the time of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction may predict increased pain post-operatively, a prolonged recovery and a more difficult rehabilitation. The main objective of our study was to identify preoperative factors, such as concomitant intra-articular injuries and bone bruises, that may be associated with increased knee pain and symptoms in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction.

Methods: Patient data was queried from our institution's prospectively maintained ACL reconstruction registry. Two-hundred and seventy patients who underwent primary ACL reconstruction within 3 months of injury were included in the study. Predictors such as demographic characteristics (age, body mass index and gender) and injury characteristics (mechanism of injury, meniscal injury, chondral injury and bone bruise) were recorded. The association between the pre-operative knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) pain and symptom subscales and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) bodily pain subscale, and the predictors were assessed using logistic regression for categorical variables and linear regression for continuous variables.

Results: The mean age of our patient group was 25.4 years with 211 out of 270 (78%) being males. Bone bruise was present in 243 patients (90%), meniscal injury in 165 (61%) patients and chondral injury in 40 (15%) patients. The presence of bone bruise, meniscal injury or chondral injury was not significantly associated with worse preoperative KOOS pain and symptom and SF-36 bodily pain scores. Other factors that were not associated were demographic characteristics (age, BMI and gender) and mechanism of injury.

Conclusion: The presence of bone bruise and concomitant intra-articular injuries does not affect pre-operative knee pain and symptoms in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction within 3 months of injury. This knowledge would aid the surgeon in pre-operative counselling, and prognostication of post-operative pain and rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction.