Higher complication rates seen with multiligament PCL procedures than isolated reconstruction

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A retrospective review of young military patients who underwent PCL reconstruction that was presented here at the Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting indicates higher complication rates with multiligament procedures compared with isolated reconstruction.

Brian R. Waterman, MD, and colleagues reviewed data for 182 patients in a military cohort who underwent 174 primary and 19 revision PCL reconstructions. These procedures were made up of 118 isolated PCL reconstructions and 75 PCL-based multiple ligament knee reconstructions. The patients had an average age of 28.4 years and an average follow-up of 19.5 months. The researchers defined clinical failure as medical disability, discharge from military service or the need for revision.

Overall surgical complication rate was 12.4%, with 18.7% in multiligament knee reconstruction group compared to 8.5% in the isolated PCL reconstruction group. Overall, the investigators discovered 33.5% of patients were discharged from military service due to disability.

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Of those undergoing primary isolated PCL reconstructions, the failure rate incorporating all three definitions for failure was 42.7%. Investigators found 35% of patients who had primary isolated PCL reconstructions were classified as disabled at final follow-up and 12.6% needed revision PCL reconstruction.

Investigators found an overall total revision rate of 10.9%, and no significant difference was observed between isolated PCL and multiple-ligament knee reconstructions.

“Patient-reported subjective knee instability was [also] predictive of failure through all three metrics for failure in our study,” Waterman said. —by Christian Ingram

Reference:

Tucker C. Paper #SS-03. Presented at: Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting; May 1-3, 2014; Hollywood, Fla.

Disclosure: Waterman has no relevant financial disclosures.