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Good results seen in patients with multiligamentous injuries after MCL reconstruction using autograft
Patients with multiligamentous knee injuries who underwent a combined medial collateral ligament and cruciate ligament reconstruction showed good results at minimum 2-year follow-up, according to results of this study.
“Medial collateral ligament reconstruction for chronic combined knee instabilities can be safely performed using hamstring tendon autografts, and the clinical outcome with a minimum 2-year follow-up was favorable with satisfactory stability,” Nobuto Kitamura, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote in the study abstract.
Kitamura and colleagues examined 37 patients who underwent the combined procedures between 1994 and 2007 and analyzed their postoperative function at minimum 2-year follow-up using the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Lysolm scores, according to the abstract. Researchers used a KT-2000 arthrometer to measure anteroposterior knee laxity and examined medial instability using a stress radiograph examination when the patient’s knee was at 20° laxity. Thirty 30 patients were available at final follow-up.
For the IKDC evaluation, 9 patients rated as A, 17 patients rated as B, 3 patients rated as C and 1 patient rated as D, according to the abstract. For Lysholm scores, 1 patient had a loss of knee extension greater than 3°, 5 patients had a knee flexion loss between 6° and 15° and 2 patients had knee flexion loss between 16° and 25°. The stress radiograph revealed a mean medial joint opening of 8.5 mm in the operated knee and 8 mm in the contralateral knee. However, there was no significant difference in the medial joint opening in either knee, according to the abstract.
Disclosure: The study was funded by grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.