ABSTRACT
Prosthetic cruciate ligament replacement has become a potentially attractive alternative for reconstruction of symptomatic anterior cruciate deficient knees. A prospective study was done on 39 male patients, mean age of 23 years [21-41]. For all cases, arthroscopic replacement of the deficient A.C.L. was performed using Gore-Tex prosthesis inserted by over the top technique. The result after mean follow up of 20 months [18-30] were promising. All objective and subjective data were mounted onto scoring system for evaluation of the cases. 78% of the cases had excellent results regarding pain, range of movement, stability, return to normal activity and return to sports. 11.9% had good results, 2.4% fair and 7.1% were poor. So 90.5% of the results were satisfactory. Complications included 6 unstable knees of which 3 cases had recurrent sterile effusion which were treated by conservative measures. One case developed deep infection and other 2 cases developed chronic reactive synovitis and all three proceeded to implant removal. In 3 cases, the tibial screw were painful at later follow up and were removed after anchorage of the ligament. It was noticed that the good results were achieved quicker in patients who stuck to the physiotherapeutic program designed for them