Achilles tendon graft matches with bone tunnel of different sizes for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Anterior cruciate ligament is the important anatomic structure to maintain the knee joint stability. The tendon bone healing and clinical functional recovery after anterior cruciate ligament have attracted more attention. OBJECTIVE:To observe the healing of graft tendon and surrounding bone with histological method through the same diameter grafts matching with the bone tunnel of different sizes in the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery, and to detect the functional recovery with biomechanics. METHODS:Middle 1/3 of canine autologous tendon was selected as the anterior cruciate ligament graft, and then trimmed into the same diameter of 4 mm. Sixteen adult mongrel canine were randomly divided into four groups. The anterior cruciate ligament was resected completely, and the tibial and femoral tunnels were prepared on the end sites of tibia and femur with the diameters of 5, 4.5, 4 and 3.5 mm, then implanted into the tendon in prepared and linked into the bone tunnel. At 6 weeks after reconstruction, the experimental canine were sacrificed under general anesthesia to col ect the tissue and organs in the surgical area. Then the hematoxylin-eosin staining, biomechanical testing and statistical analysis were performed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At 6 weeks after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, anatomical observation showed that there were no significant differences in growth of grafts and bone tunnels between groups;hematoxylin-eosin staining showed sharpey-like fibronectin could be seen in the tendon bone healing surface, and the col agen fibers in the 3.5 mm bone tunnel group were more compact and regular than those in the other groups;the biomechanical testing results in the 3.5 mm bone tunnel group were better than those in the other groups. The results indicate that during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, decreasing the diameter of bone tunnel that matched with grafts in order to make the tendon and the bone tunnel closely matched can provide a more stable cel biological and mechanical environment, accelerate the formation and transformation of tendon-bone healing interface, and can improve the quality of tendon-bone healing.