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No significant difference found between drilling, grafting during ACL reconstruction
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Researchers found no significant differences between drilling or autologous osteochondral grafting to treat articular cartilage defects during ACL reconstruction surgery, according to this study.
“No differences in International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores were found in patients with a concomitant ACL rupture and an osteochondral lesion treated by drilling or autologous osteochondral grafting (AOG) at a minimum follow-up of 1 year, regardless of the differences at arthroscopic grading of the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) classification,” the researchers stated in the abstract.
IKDC scores for the drilling group increased from 52.3 to 94.3 at a median of 25 months. Similarly, the AOG group had an increase in IKDC scores from 64.4 to 95.4. Although there was no difference in score improvement between the two groups, there was a difference in arthroscopic findings of repaired cartilage.
Researchers studied 40 patients – 20 patients in the drilling group and 20 patients in the AOG group – with articular cartilage defects. Surgeons used multiple 1.2-mm Kirschner wires in the drilling group. In the AOG group, surgeons harvested grafts from the “less-weight-bearing periphery of the articular surface of the femoral condyle,” according to the abstract.
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