Arthroscopic Revision ACL Reconstruction

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We analyzed the 11 knees in 11 patients who had arthroscopic revision anterior cruciate liga-ment(ACL) reconstruction and demonstrate the causes of failure of ACL reconstruction and report the clinical result of arthroscopic revision ACL reconstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From March 1997 to April 1999, 11 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction at other hospital had been treated by revision ACL reconstruction. Their mean age at revision was 26.4 years, average time from primary to revision surgery was 26.8 months and average length of follow up was 22 months. We evaluated the results of revision surgery by symptom, Lysholm knee score, physical examination and KT-100 arthrometer. RESULTS: The causes of failure of ACL reconstruction were 8 improper tunnel placements(6 femoral tunnels, 2 tibial tunnels), 2 graft incorporation failure and 1 multiple ligament injury(N=l 1). After revi- sion all patients had improved symptom. There was improvement of average Lysholm knee score from 70 to 87( 2 excellents, 7 goods, 1 fair, 1 poor) with success rate of 82%( 9/11). The data showed decrease of the mean side to side difference from 10.9 mm to 1.7 mm by KT-1000 arthrometer. CONCLUSION: The most common causes of failure of ACL reconstruction were surgical techniques and anatomical tunnel placement was the most important among them.