Non-operative Treatment for Acute Intra-synovial Sheath ACL Rupture / 中国运动医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of non-operative treatment for the acute intra-synovial sheath anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture.Methods Twenty-eight patients diagnosed as the acute intra-synovial sheath ACL rupture at outpatient clinic between May 2014 and July 2016 were included.All patients were immobilized with knee braces for 6 weeks,followed by range of motion (ROM) training and partial to full weight-bearing of knees.All patients returned 3 months later for MRI scanning and those with the side-to-side difference of the anterior-posterior laxity less than 5 mm continued with non-operative treatment,followed up for MRI examination and clinical assessments 6 and 12 months later.Results Four patients dropped out because they didn't meet the stability criteria at 3 months after the treatment,3 of whom received surgical reconstruction and 1 with muscle strengthening training.Another patient received surgical reconstruction at 5 months due to re-injury.The remaining 23 patients achieved satisfactory results at 12 months after the treatment,with the average side-to-side difference of the anterior-posterior laxity of 2.1mm (0-4 mm),MRI good-to-excellent rate of 85.2％ (8 of Grade 1 and 15 of Grade 2),subjective IKDC (International Knee Documentation Committee) score of 92.71 (89.7-98.9),Lysholm score of 91.6 (86-95),and modified Larson score 96.4 (92-99).Conclusions Patients with the acute intra-synovial sheath anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture showed satisfactory functional scores and objective stability and healing on MRI after the non-operative treatment.