The long head of the triceps: a detailed analysis of its capsular origin.

Whether the triceps brachii muscle provides any significant contribution to stability about the shoulder girdle is unknown. This study seeks to document the anatomy of the origin of the long head of the triceps tendon and to resolve discrepancies in the anatomic literature. Fifteen fresh frozen cadaveric shoulder girdle specimens were dissected, the long head of the triceps and the posterior capsule being exposed. The long head origin averaged 29.5 mm (range, 26-34 mm) in width and 5.7 mm (range, 4-7 mm) in thickness. The average cross-sectional area of origin of the tendon was 168 mm2, and the fibrous contribution from the glenohumeral capsule averaged 2.3% (range, 1.4% to 3.1%) of the tendon's area. A capsular contribution was found in each specimen. The documentation of this capsular contribution may warrant further biomechanical and electromyographic study.

Electrothermally-assisted capsular shift.

The marriage of biomedical instrumentation and patient care has once again proven itself successful. The ETAC is a new procedure with various potential applications. Despite its embryonic stage, this procedure is being used by a handful of shoulder surgeons who are cautiously pursuing new and improved ways to prevent the common and debilitating diagnosis of shoulder instability. Follow-up thus far is short, and the current literature lacks studies that compare the time-honored conventional standard of open stabilization to this new procedure. However, those surgeons who have been using this device are optimistic about its role in the future repair of shoulder injuries.

Dermatitis complicating saphenous nerve injury after arthroscopic debridement of a medial meniscal cyst.

We report the case of a patient who developed hypesthesia in the distribution of the saphenous nerve after an arthroscopic debridement of a medial meniscal cyst. Dermatitis developed in the area of the hypesthesia 3 months later, Both complications responded to symptomatic treatment. A review of the literature confirms the unusual nature of these complications.

Anterior cruciate ligament graft rotation. Reproduction of normal graft rotation.

The purpose of this study was to determine normal rotation of the anterior cruciate ligament and to provide a technique for reproduction of this rotation. Ten fresh-frozen knees were dissected of all soft tissue except for the anterior cruciate ligament. Specimens were secured in a vise in 60 degrees of flexion. Each tibia was allowed to spin freely on the femur, and rotation was recorded. Anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions, using bone-patellar tendon-bone grafts, were then performed on all specimens using four graft rotations. Each specimen was then tested to assess how the graft twist affected tibial rotation. The average tibial rotation of the normal anterior cruciate ligaments was 55 degrees internally. Previous descriptions of anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions have advocated medial or internal rotation of the graft to reproduce normal anatomic rotation of the anterior cruciate ligament. Our cadaveric dissections have demonstrated that the anterior cruciate ligament normally produces internal rotation of the tibia in relation to the femur. Reproduction of this anatomic rotation is accomplished with 90 degrees of lateral rotation of the tibial plug toward the fibula.

Pain dysfunction syndrome of the knee.

Pain dysfunction syndrome is a descriptive term recommended by Amadio to describe patients whose pain is excessive, nonanatomic, and out of proportion to their injury. This retrospective review reports the effectiveness of a differential epidural block in the evaluation of these patients. Four patterns of response were identified with the block: 1) reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) (14%), 2) somatic (9%), 3) mixed sympathetic and somatic (27%), and 4) central (50%). The inciting injury in 70% of the patients was a minor strain, sprain, or contusion. Despite accurate diagnosis, the results in compensation cases with pain dysfunction syndrome are exceedingly poor.

Long-term followup of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using freeze-dried fascia lata allografts.

We identified 79 patients who underwent arthroscopically assisted intraarticular anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with freeze-dried fascia lata allografts and an additional lateral extraarticular reconstruction. We were able to contact 62 patients (79%) for follow-up evaluation at an average of 134.5 months. Forty patients (51%) returned for objective evaluation. Lysholm scores at followup averaged 92.3 and Tegner activity scores averaged 5.1. Only four (6%) of the 62 patients contacted reported episodes of full giving way. Thirty (75%) of the 40 patients examined demonstrated 3 mm or less side-to-side difference on KT-1000 arthrometer manual maximum evaluation. Forty-eight (77%) of the 62 patients were participating in sporting activities at final followup. No patient had evidence of graft rejection.

Biomechanical assessment of the healing response of the rabbit patellar tendon after removal of its central third.

The objective of this study was to determine the biomechanical properties of the healing patellar tendon after removal of its central third. This was accomplished by removing the central third of the patellar tendon from the right limb of 30 mature New Zealand White rabbits. The tendon of the contralateral normal limb served as the unoperated control. The rabbits were separated into five test groups according to healing time: time of surgery and 1, 2, 3, and 6 months after surgery. The ultimate failure strength of the patellar tendons with the central third removed was significantly less than the failure strength of the contralateral normal patellar tendons at all time intervals after surgery. At the time of surgery, the ultimate failure strength values of the operated patellar tendons were on average 53% of the normal patellar tendons, increasing to 72% of normal at 6 months. There was a significant correlation between the ultimate failure strength of the operated tendons and healing time. The positive slope for this regression indicated that the ultimate failure strength of the operated tendons converged toward normal as healing progressed. Failure mode of the operated tendon did not depend on healing time.

Posterior cruciate ligament tibial attachment anatomy and radiographic landmarks for tibial tunnel placement in PCL reconstruction.

The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) was dissected in 12 frozen human cadaver knees. The tibial attachment was radiographically mapped and guide wires placed on the distal-lateral bulk of the ligament's tibial attachment. Radiographic landmarks were then described on the anteroposterior and lateral radiographs to assist in tibial tunnel guide wire placement in PCL reconstruction. The radiographic site corresponding to the posterior ridge of the tibial plateau approximately 1 cm below the joint line and a few millimeters lateral to the center of the lateral tibial tubercle will reliably confirm tibial tunnels in PCL reconstruction.

Contaminated rabbit patellar tendon grafts. In vivo analysis of disinfecting methods.

In Part 1 of our study, 40 central-third bone-patellar tendon-bone grafts were harvested from 20 adult California White rabbits under strict sterile conditions. Ten grafts were placed directly into a thioglycolate broth, incubated, and subcultured; no growth was noted in any specimen. The next 6 grafts were contaminated 20 seconds each with 2 different species of coagulase-negative staphylococci. Organisms were grown with cultures obtained from an operating room floor during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Marked growth of both species was noted in all 6 grafts within 24 hours. A subsequent 3 series of 8 grafts each were harvested sterilely, contaminated as described above, and soaked in 1 of 3 solutions 30 minutes before culture. Both 10% povidone-iodine and a triple-antibiotic solution (gentamicin, clindamycin, polymyxin) were 100% ineffective as both organisms grew; 4% chlorhexidine gluconate effectively decontaminated 8 grafts in all cases. Part 2 involved contamination of harvested grafts with 5 common, virulent organisms: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis. Elimination of all except Klebsiella pneumoniae was successful with 4% chlorhexidine gluconate alone for 8 grafts. Using a triple-antibiotic solution after chlorhexidine gluconate in 6 grafts eliminated this organism also.

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries in patients with open physes.

From July 1988 to August 1989, six children with open physes and injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament were treated operatively. All injuries involved twisting episodes during sports activities. All six patients had meniscal abnormalities, and, additionally, one patient sustained a Grade III medical ligament tear and had a lateral patellar dislocation. Operative reconstruction used hamstring tendons and place a groove over the front of the tibia and a groove over the top of the femur without violation of the growth plates. The anterior cruciate ligament was primarily repaired (three patients) at the time of reconstruction, if possible. At 3 months, one patient underwent arthroscopic resection of adhesions for arthrofibrosis. There were no other complications. Five patients were evaluated with clinical examination, radiographs, magnetic resonance imaging, and functional testing at an average followup of 33.2 months (range, 25 to 38). Four of the five had returned to their preinjury level of sports participation. Manual maximum KT-1000 arthrometer side-to-side differences averaged 3.6 +/- 1.9 mm. The average Lysholm knee score was 95.2 +/- 2.5; the average Hospital for Special Surgery knee score was 96.6 +/- 2.3. There were no growth plate injuries. Despite the overall clinical stability, magnetic resonance image scans of the five patients consistently demonstrated areas of increased signal in the anterior cruciate ligament grafts.

An anatomic study of the subscapularis tendon and myotendinous junction.

The subscapularis muscle and tendon were studied in 25 cadaveric specimens. The subscaputaris insertion into the proximal humerus and its musculolendinous junction was defined. We found that the subscapularis muscle had a gradual formation of the musculotendinous junction and, in contrast to classical descriptions, inserted into the humerus as both tendon and muscle. The musculotendinous junction was fully formed 2 cm from the lesser tuberosity. The superior 60% of the muscle's insertion inserted into the lesser tuberosity as tendon. The remaining insertion consisted of muscle and was below the lesser tuberosity. The anterior humeral circumflex vessels and the axillary nerve marked the inferior aspect of the subscapularis muscle at the anterior aspect of the quadrangular space. The vessels then coursed laterally and superiorly onto the anterior surface of the muscle insertion coursing over the division between the tendinous and muscular portions. Proper identification of these relationships can prevent complications in shoulder surgery.

The anterior humeral circumflex vessels and the axillary nerve. An anatomic study.

The anatomic relationship between the anterior humeral circumflex vessels and the axillary nerve was studied in 24 fresh-frozen cadaveric four-quarter shoulder specimens. Each shoulder was exposed through a standard deltopectoral incision, and the axillary nerve, anterior humeral circumflex vessels, and bicipital groove were identified. The perpendicular distance from the medial border of the bicipital groove to a point where the vessels crossed anterior to the nerve measured 2.6 +/- 0.4 cm (range, 2.1-3.6 cm). The perpendicular distance from the medial aspect of the bicipital groove to the point where the axillary nerve crossed the inferior border of the subscapularis and thus entered the quadrangular space was 3.0 +/- 0.5 cm (range, 2.1-4.4 cm). The anterior humeral circumflex vessels were easily located in all specimens, and the axillary nerve could be identified by its relationship to the vessels as described above, thus providing the operating surgeon with a consistent and reliable method of recognizing this nerve during anterior shoulder procedures. In addition, the axillary nerve was palpable in all specimens by sweeping the index finger in a medial-to-lateral direction along the inferior border of the subscapularis.

Simultaneous high tibial osteotomy and ACL reconstruction for combined genu varum and symptomatic ACL tear.

This article reviews the subjective, objective, functional, and radiographic results of five patients with symptomatic anterior cruciate instability, genu varum, and varus rotational instability treated by sequential high tibial osteotomy and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction at one operative procedure. The average patient age was 27 years (range: 21 to 35), and the average follow up was 2.5 years (range: 2 to 3). All patients had symptomatic instability with anterior tibia subluxation, which was documented by KT-1000 testing. All patients also had a varus alignment clinically and radiographically with medial compartment pain. Postoperatively, the medial compartment pain was improved, and instability episodes were eliminated. Side to side differences (KT-1000--manual maximum) were reduced to 3.1 mm. There were no complications. The instability episodes were eliminated, and functional levels were improved in all patients. We concluded that, for this select group of patients, simultaneous extremity realignment and ligament stabilization will effectively manage both conditions without compromising the results of either procedure.