title: Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament with Achilles tendon autograft.
abstract: The increasingly serious complications of artificial ligaments and allografts have brought them into disrepute. Recently, autografts have drawn more attention. A new type of autograft, the Achilles tendon autograft, has been developed and applied to anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions. This report describes the advantages of the Achilles tendon autograft used and presents the results of a prospective study of 21 patients with minimum 2 year follow up. Of the 21 cases, 16 patients (75%) had a rating of excellent; 2 (10%) good, 2 (10%) fair, and 1 (5%) poor. Preoperative knee scores of 56.7 were improved to 89.5 postoperatively. The authors removed less than half of the Achilles tendon with the calcaneal bone incorporated. Through magnetic resonance imaging we confirmed that the remaining Achilles tendon of the donor site regained its volume and strength within a year without significant complication. Achilles tendon autograft offers the advantages of length, elastic strain modulus, reproducibility in technique, and consistency of the result without significant complications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: K Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000125:Achilles Tendon / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D000070598:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000601:surgery; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D008124:Locomotion; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D012038:Regeneration; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous