A comparative study of tunnel enlargement after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with autologous and allogenic tendons / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the changes of bone tunnel and differences of clinical outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with hamstring tendons from autografts and allografts. Methods The study involved in 61 patients with ACL injury undergone arthroscopic ACL reconstruction from June 2008 to November 2009.According to ACL graft differences,61 patients were assigned to two groups,ie,Group A ( reconstruction with tendon allografts,n =27 ) and Group B ( reconstruction with tendon autografts,n =34).MRI examination was performed one week and 6-12 months post-operatively to measure the sagittal bone tunnel diameters at the aperture location,at the location of 1cm away from the aperture and at the widest location of tunnel.Taking the bone tunnel diameter at each location one week post-operatively as the measurement criteria,the differences of bone tunnel diameters at each corresponding location were analyzed statistically.Lysholm score was used to evaluate the clinical effects in the two groups. Results Group A and B were followed up for average 8.4 months and 8.5 months,respectively.Pre-operative clinical data of the two groups had no significant difference.MRI follow-up showed that the tunnel diameters at femoral side and tibial side both had different degree of enlargement.Meanwhile,the enlargement degree at the tibial side was larger than that at the femoral side,with no statistical differences of the two groups regarding tunnel enlargement of the three measurement locations at femoral and tibial sides.Joint stability in all patients was good.The two groups showed no significant difference in Lysholm score after operation ( P ＞ 0.05 ). Conclusions Graft difference is a factor for bone tunnel enlargement after ACL surgery.Autologous and allogenic tendons show no difference in their role in bone tunnel enlargement after ACL surgery or correlation with clinical effects.