Association Between Autograft Choice and Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport After ACL Reconstruction.

Background: It has been demonstrated that an athlete's psychological readiness contributes to one's ability to successfully return to sport (RTS) after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. However, the effect of graft choice on psychological readiness is not yet understood.

Purpose/hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between graft choice and an athlete's psychological readiness to RTS. It was hypothesized that similar ACL-Return to Sport after Injury (ACL-RSI) scores would be achieved among patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with quadriceps autograft (QA), hamstring tendon autograft (HA), and bone-patellar tendon-bone (BTB) autograft.

Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: Patients who underwent primary ACL reconstruction at a single institution between January 2017 and December 2018 were placed into separate cohorts depending on graft type (HA, BTB, or QA; n = 30 patients in each group), and the ACL-RSI, International Knee Documentation Committee subjective form, and Lysholm scores were compared between the different graft cohorts at 6 months postoperatively, at RTS, and at 2 years postoperatively. Also, the rate of patients who achieved an ACL-RSI score of ≥65 (predictive of return to preinjury sport at 2 years postoperatively) was calculated, as was the RTS rate and time.

Results: The QA group demonstrated significantly higher ACL-RSI scores than both the HA and BTB groups at 6 months postoperatively ( < .0001) and RTS ( = .011). The QA group also had a higher rate of achieving ≥65 on ACL-RSI than the other groups at 6 months postoperatively ( = .002) and RTS ( = .024). There was no significant difference in the RTS rate between the 3 groups, although the QA group demonstrated a significantly quicker return (QA, 8.1 months; BTB, 9.6 months; HA, 10.5 months; < .001).

Conclusion: Athletes undergoing primary ACL reconstruction with QA achieved a higher mean ACL-RSI score and more often achieved a score of ≥65 at the 6-month and RTS time points compared with the HA and BTB groups. QA may afford an advantage over other grafts in terms of improved psychological readiness to RTS.