MRI Correlation with Functional Scores Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery

ABSTRACT

Introduction: An anterior cruciate ligament tear is the mostcommon ligament tear in the knee joint. Anterior cruciateligament reconstruction is an accepted intervention for noncoping anterior cruciate ligament injured subjects. The tornligament is removed from the knee before the graft is insertedin an arthroscopic procedure. Functional performance tests forassessing knee status is clearly evident in the literature, witheach task seen to place different demands on the knee jointunder controlled clinical conditions. MRI is able to asses graftsignal intensity in a non-invasive way. The intra-articular graftundergoes a maturation and remodelling process lasting evenbeyond 24 months due to synovial proliferation,vascularization, and “neoligamentization” of the graft.Materials & Methods: We did a descriptive cross-sectionalstudy of 30 patients with 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging ofthe knee who had undergone anterior cruciate ligamentreconstruction six months after surgery. The amount of signalintensity changes in graft classified according to crosssectional area in axial sections as <25%, 25-50%, and >50 %.Patients were subjected to functional testing, post-surgery.Results: Of 30 cases examined increased intrasubstance graftsignal intensity was found in 73.3% (22 of 30) of patients onT2-weighted and intermediate weighted MR images. Therewas an insignificant association between graft signal intensityand functional tests.Conclusion: Graft signal intensity on can be seenafter ACL reconstruction and not necessarily correlate withlimitations in patients after ACL reconstruction surgery due tothe process of remodeling.