SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF ACL RECONSTRUCTIONS – A PROSPECTIVE STUDY USING THE WARRINGTON KNEE INJURY DATABASE

Abstract

Purpose: To subjectively assess and present the outcome after ACL reconstruction with minimum follow-up of 24 months.

Methods: Our knee injury database was established in June 2001. Data were collected prospectively for all knee ligament reconstructions carried out by a single surgeon. The database has a prospectively studied consecutive series where all the patients surveyed completed the Lysholm, KOOS and IKDC 2000 questionnaires preoperatively and at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months postoperatively. Our knee injury database comprises of 163 patients who had ACL reconstruction in which Hamstrings were used in 120 cases and Bone Patella-Tendon Bone (BPTB) grafts in 43. This includes 27 complex reconstructions and 12 revisions (11 from other centres).

Results: Fifty-six of the 79 patients (70.8%) who were at least 2 years post ACL reconstruction attended for their 2 year review. Majority were male patients(90%) and both attendees and non- attendees were of a similar age (30.5 /30 respectively) and did not exhibit a statistically significant difference in their pre op or early post op scores. In the non-attendee group 2 were students, 1 emigrated, 1 registered as unemployed, 7 no employment status and 3 did not consent to such follow-up. The mechanism of injury was, 62 as sporting injury (24 contact/38 non-contact sport), 3 road traffic accidents and 8 activities of daily living and 2 not recorded. The mean scores were, IKDC – 77.14, Lysholm – 83.96 and KOOS symptom – 81.6.

Conclusions: All subjective evaluation questionnaires (KOOS, Lysholm and IKDC) revealed a progressive trend in our patients. We found that in the KOOS, a multidimensional patient completed aggregated score, the Quality of Life (QoL) dimension exhibited results which were interestingly not correlating with the other dimensions of the questionnaire, with patients who scored < 50% occupying manual or non-administrative positions at work