Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Arthroscopic evaluation of the articular cartilage after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: A short-term prospective study of 105 patients
Section snippets
Methods
One hundred and fifty-nine patients underwent arthroscopicly assisted ACL reconstruction for a unilateral ACL injury between May 1995 and December 1997 at our institution. Patients included 77 men and 82 women, ranging in age from 14 to 44 years (mean, 25.8 years).
General condition
Two patients complained of patellofemoral crepitus and mild pain. Second-look arthroscopy showed fibrillation of the articular cartilage of the patella and femoral groove. One patient complained of medial pain. Second-look arthroscopy showed fibrillation of the articular cartilage of MTP. The other patients had no pain of the knee. No formation of neuromas was found. Average KT-1000 side-to-side difference was 2.3 ± 1.8 (range, 1.5 to 5). Six patients showed negative values. No patients needed
Discussion
Whether surgical repair and stabilization actually reduce the incidence of post-traumatic osteoarthritis of the knee remains controversial. Several studies have reported that many knees with reconstructed ACL showed osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction.6, 7, 8, 9 These studies reported that residual anterior laxity showed no correlation to the incidence of osteoarthritis. Several studies revealed risk factors of radiographic degenerative osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction. Kullmer et al.
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