Abstract
Introduction
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries represent a significant burden of disease to the orthopaedic surgeon and often necessitate surgical reconstruction in the presence of instability. The hamstring graft has traditionally been used to reconstruct the ACL but the quadriceps tendon (QT) graft has gained popularity due to its relatively low donor site morbidity.
Methods
This is a single centre comparative retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of patients who had an ACL reconstruction (either with single tendon quadrupled hamstring graft or soft tissue quadriceps tendon graft). All surgeries were performed by a single surgeon using the All-inside technique. For this study, there were 20 patients in each group. All patients received the same post-operative rehabilitation protocol and were added to the National Ligament Registry to monitor their patient related outcome scores (PROM).
Results
The average age of patients in the QT group was 29 years (16 males, 4 females) and in the hamstring group was 28 years (18 males, 2 females). The most common mechanism of injury in both groups was a contact twisting injury. There were no statistical differences between the two patient groups in regards to PROMS and need for further revision surgery as analysed on the National Ligament Registry.
Conclusions
The all soft tissue QT graft seems to be equivocal to quadrupled hamstring graft in terms of patient function and recovery graft characteristics. Further research may be needed to elucidate the long-term results of the all soft tissue QT graft given its recent increase in use.
