FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME OF ARTHROSCOPIC ACL RECONSTRUCTION WITH HAMSTRING GRAFT

Abstract

Background: The most common joint to be injured in our body is knee joint, and the commonest ligament to be injured is anterior cruciate ligament in the knee.Etiology includes road trafc accidents and sport injuries. The ACL, along with other ligaments, the capsule are the stabilizers of the knee and prevents anterior translation, and limits valgus and rotational stress. The articular cartilage injuries in acute ACL tears constitutes from 16 – 46%, and in chronic tears, the incidence increases further2. For prevention of further worsening of the existing lesions and also to prevent formation of new lesions, stablity of the knee should be achieved.The present study is to assess the functional outcome of arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using hamstring tendon (gracilis and semitendinosus) autograft in patients with ACL tears. Methods: Study design: Hospital Based Observational study. Study period: September 2019 to August 2021. Sample size: 30 30 consecutive patients who underwent arthroscopic ACL reconstructions with hamstring graft were taken for this study. Results: Out of these, 27 patients were male and 3 were female. Right side affected in 18 patients and left side in 12 patients. The most common mechanism of the injury was sports activity in 17 patients, RTA injuries in 10 patients and other job related injuries in 3 patients. Isolated ACL tears in thirteen patients in our study and rest had associated injuries to menisci in same knee.Better postoperative functional scores are seen with patients with isolated ACL injuries compared to those patients with associated injuries of the knee like meniscal tears. Observations include anterior drawer test was negative in 83.33% of patients at 3 months, 86.67% of patients at 6 months and at 1 year 96.15% of patients had a negative anterior drawer test. Full range of motion attained in 86.67% of patients at 3 months, 93.33% of patients at 6 months and at 1 year 96.15% of patients.Pivot shift test was negative postoperatively for all the patients at any follow-up. Postoperatively at 3 months 25 (83.33%) patients had 5/5 quadriceps power (MRC grading) 92.3% of them had 5/5 power at latest follow up. Complications include Supercial infection and Deep infection in our study. Conclusion: Anterior cruciate ligament tears are most common at a mean age of 28 years with preponderance to male gender. The most common mechanism of the injury was sports activity. Isolated ACL injury is more common than along with associated meniscal injuries.Anatomic single bundle reconstruction with quadrupled hamstring graft gives good functional results.Hamstring graft xation with endobutton and interference screw gives better functional outcome.