title: Anterior cruciate ligament replacement using part of the patellar tendon as a free graft.
abstract: The operative result in 91 patients who had a repair of a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and replacement with a bone-patellar ligament-bone autogenous graft are analyzed. The average time between initial injury and operation was 2 years. Instability of the knee had been present for 6 months to 6 years and the mean follow up was 4 years. Indications for the intraarticular repair were a positive Pivot shift test and Lachman test and a positive anterior drawer sign at the preoperative examinations while under anesthesia. Seventy percent of the injuries were sports related and the remaining thirty percent injured their knee during work-related activities. Forty-eight percent (44 patients) had an associated meniscal lesion, the majority of which were on the medial side. Eighty percent of the meniscal lesions required partial meniscectomy and 20% were repaired. Eleven percent (10 patients) had an associated chondral lesion while 2 patients had a second degree of chondromalacia of the patella. The results were assessed using the Clancy criteria. Sixty eight percent (62 patients) had an excellent result, 28% (25 patients) very good, and 4 patients fair or good. The Lachman test was negative in 70% of out patients and mildly positive with a firm end point in 30%. The pivot shift test was negative in 71% and mildly positive in 29% of our patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, General Army Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Efstathiou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iliadis
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antonogiannakis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D000070598:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D017847:Patellar Ligament / Q000637:transplantation*; D012421:Rupture; D016896:Treatment Outcome