ACL repair patients have better outcomes than patients who undergo ACL reconstruction

A comparison of matched patient cases involving ACL repair with ACL reconstruction found that patients who undergo ACL repair have better outcomes than those who have ACL reconstruction, according to research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine 2022 Annual Meeting.

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is a surgical tissue graft replacement of the anterior cruciate ligament, located in the knee, to restore its function after an injury. An ACL repair is a minimally invasive procedure to reattach the torn ligament. Currently, there is a scarcity of data directly comparing the effectiveness of ACL reconstruction with ACL repair.

Adnan Saithna, MD, from FRCS, AZBSC Orthopedic, Phoenix, and colleagues designed a retrospective analysis to compare the clinical and functional outcomes of ACL repair with ACL reconstruction, at a minimum follow-up of two years.

Dr. Saithna compared 75 matched (based on variables including age, gender, BMI, the time between injury and surgery, knee laxity parameters, the presence of meniscal lesions, pre-operative activity level, and sports participation) who underwent ACL repair to those who underwent ACL reconstruction during the same period.

Isokinetic testing was used to evaluate strength deficits compared to the contralateral limb at 6 months postoperatively. At the final follow-up, knee laxity parameters, return to sport, and outcome measures including Lysholm, Tegner, IKDC, ACL-RSI and the Forgotten Joint Score-12 (FJS) were recorded.

According to Dr. Saithna's analysis, the ACL repair group had significantly better mean hamstring muscle strength (+1.7% +- 12.8, compared to contralateral limb) when compared to their counterparts who underwent ACL reconstruction (-10.0% +- 12.8, compared to contralateral limb) (p<0.0001).

Reference:

ACL repair patients have better outcomes than patients who undergo ACL reconstruction. AMERICAN ORTHOPAEDIC SOCIETY FOR SPORTS MEDICINE, MEETING- American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting.