Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The effect of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is affected by many factors, including graft choice.
OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyze the graft types, material properties, relevant experiments and clinical application in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
METHODS: The first author retrieved PubMed and Wanfang databases (1985/2009) for articles addressing graft materials for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, such as autologous ligaments, ligament allograft, artificial ligaments, tissue engineered ligament, and heterogeneous ligaments.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Implants for repairing of anterior cruciate ligament injuries include autologous ligaments, ligament allograft, artificial ligaments, tissue engineered ligament. Furthermore, other materials such as xenografts are underlying testing and feasibility studies. Artificial materials and tissue engineered ligaments are the hotspots in recent years. However, the high-cost and complex process limits the clinical use of these two kinds of implants. With the development of antigen-processing technologies, it is impossible to efficiently eliminate the immunogenicity of heterogeneous tendon/ligament and improve quality of biocompatibility. Xenografts with the good price and rich source are convenient to be obtained and suitable to widespread application in the future.