title: Subject variation in caprine anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
abstract: We studied the subject and treatment contributions to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction biomechanics by reexaming the results of two bilateral reconstruction studies. Bilateral reconstruction allows a comparison between treatments exposed to the same subject related healing factors. The studies examined the effects of gamma irradiation and the effects of initial graft size and initial graft laxity. In both studies different treatments were applied to contralateral limbs. We found that the subject was the best predictor of outcome, while the surgical treatments had little influence on outcome. There was a large variation between subjects despite similar treatments, and little difference between contralateral limbs despite different surgical treatments. At 26 weeks, the graft cross sectional area and modulus were most strongly influenced (p < 0.002) by the subject. We interpret this as a subject related factor is regulating the quantity and quality of the healing tissue. Potential sources of subject related factors include the subject's pre-operative condition, the activity during the post-operative period, and an intrinsic biologic response. By better understanding the source of subject variation, more successful and consistent ACL reconstructions might be achieved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, USA. jcumming@eesus.jnj.com
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Grood
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016025:Bone Transplantation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005720:Gamma Rays; D006041:Goats; D007593:Joint Instability; D017847:Patellar Ligament / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000637:transplantation; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013264:Stifle / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery