Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original articleSoft-Tissue Interference Fixation: Bioabsorbable Screw Versus Metal Screw
Section snippets
Methods
Ten paired cadaveric femurs and tibiae (mean donor age, 66.5 years; range, 53 to 81 years) were used in this study. After removal of all knee specimen soft tissues, individual tibia and femur specimens were placed in a saline bath. After this, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning of the metaphyseal and diaphyseal regions of interest for ACL reconstruction was performed using an x-ray fan beam scanning system (Hologic QDR-1000 Whole Body X-Ray Bone Densitometer; Hologic Inc, Waltham,
Results
Our use of paired femur and tibia specimens helped to attain comparable femur (Table 1) and tibia (Table 2) BMD between groups. The mean femur specimen BMD (.76 g/cm2) was significantly higher than the mean tibia specimen BMD (.56 g/cm2) (P = .04).
BioScrew fixation of a QHTG in a femoral tunnel showed superior load at failure and stiffness to QHTG-femoral tunnel fixation using an RCI titanium interference screw (Table 1). Significant differences were not observed for QHTG-tibial tunnel fixation
Discussion
Mean tibia (.57 g/cm2) and femur (.76 g/cm2) specimen BMD was considerably less than that reported in young active female subjects using a similar DEXA scanning technique (tibia metaphysis BMD approximately = 1.1 ± .12 g/cm2, femoral metaphysis BMD approximately = 1.27 ± .14 g/cm2). 13 The lower BMD of the elderly cadaver bone used in our study limits the generalizability of our findings. Young cadaveric bone would be the ideal substrate for biomechanical testing, but this type of tissue is
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Linvatec for providing materials for this research and Ray Neef and Robert Morgan who initiated this research.
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2015, Asia-Pacific Journal of Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, Rehabilitation and TechnologyCitation Excerpt :We observed a preference for bioabsorbable interference screws for tibial fixation. Some authors40–42 reported that metal screws, compared with bioabsorbable screws, had higher rates of graft laceration in hamstring ACL reconstruction. A meta-analysis that compared ACL reconstruction outcomes between bioabsorbable and metallic screws found no significant differences in functional outcomes or stability.43
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Supported in part by Linvatec Inc, Largo, Florida.