Correlation Between Patients 'Satisfaction and Objective Measurement after ACL Reconstruction

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to correlate patients 'satisfaction with the objective measurement of the knee stability after a ACL reconstruction using a patellar tendon autograft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contact was made with 120 patients who a ACL reconstruction using a patellar tendon autograft on unilateral ACL rupture between January 1995 and April 2002 by single surgeon. Assessment was made by the KOOS score, Tegner score, Lysholm score, patients 'satisfaction, IKDC score, manual physical examination, one leg hop test and radiologic AP translation. Paired t-test, Pearson product moment correlation(PPMC) and Spearman 's rank correlation test were used to test the correlation between the parameters. RESULTS: Radiologic AP translation showed a statistically significant correlation with manual lachman and pivot shift tests. The Lysholm score had a high correlation with the patients 'satisfaction and one leg hop test. The final IKDC evaluation system showed the highest correlations with the Lysholm score, the patients 'satisfaction, the Tegner score, the manual lachman test, one leg hop test. Resumption of sports and work according to the Tegner score correlated with the patients 'satisfaction but had a very low correlation with manual lachman test. The knee laxity measurement using manual lachman test correlated with neither one leg hop test nor the patients 'satisfaction. The one leg hop test correlated with the Lysholm score, the patients 'satisfaction, the final IKDC evaluation system. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the final IKDC evaluation system is a very reliable tool and the patients 'satisfaction is important for evaluating the results after ACL reconstructiuon. And the one leg hop test also appear to be a reliable way of evaluating the functional outcome of the ACL reconstruction.