Abstract:

BACKGROUND: There are mostly three kinds of grafts used in ansterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, such as autografts, allograft and artificial ligaments, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are a lot of debates on selections of grafts.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of hamstring tendon autograft and tendon allograft used in reconstruction of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
METHODS: Seventy knees with ACL tear in 70 patients, verified by arthroscopy at the Department of Orthopedics in the Affiiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical College from January 2007 to January 2009, were divided into two groups, and all the damaged ansterior cruciate ligaments were reconstructed under arthroscopy with hamstring tendon autograft or tendon allograft respectively. The value of KT-1000 and the Lysholm scores were recorded before operations and during follow-ups.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: All of them were followed up for 18 to 24 months with an average of 20.1 months except two were missing. No severe complication, such as vascular nerve injury, infection and rupture of graft occurred in early stage after operations in the patients followed. Wound around canal orifice of drainage tube exuded continuely in two cases of allograft group, which were cured successfully by changing dressings after half a month. Lysholm scores of both groups increased, side-side difference of the postoperative anterior laxity decreased significantly, and there was no statistical significance in the above-mentioned data between these two group (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that the therapeutic effects in the two groups are satisfactory equally.