Clinical outcomes and return to sport after single-stage revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction by bone-patellar tendon autograft combined with lateral extra-articular tenodesis.

PURPOSE: The anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) failure rate continues to increase. Involvement of a young population with a desire to return to sport, explains the increased need for ACLR (revACLR) revision. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical outcome, complications, failure rate and return to sport of a single-stage revACLR using bone patellar tendon-bone (BTBT) combined with lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 36 patients who underwent revACLR. Knee stability was assessed by Lachman and Pivot shift test. Objective anterior laxity was determined by KT-2000 arthrometer. The IKDC subjective, Lysholm, ACL-RSI Scores, level of sport activity and Forgotten Joint Score-12 were recorded. RESULTS: Of 36 patients, we collected data from 17 who underwent single-stage revACLR with autologous BTBT combined with LET, performed using an extra-articular MacIntosh procedure as modified by Arnold-Coker. The side-to-side difference in Lachman test and Pivot shift test significantly improved postoperatively. The subjective IKDC, Lysholm and ACL-RSI significantly improved from 71.4 ± 9.03 to 92 ± 6.9, from 58.3 ± 19.3 to 66.8 ± 27.7 and from 50.4 ± 12.2 to 68.6 ± 24.5, respectively during the post-operative follow-up. Ten patients (58.8%) returned to their desired level of sport. One patient was considered a failure because of the postoperative laxity. CONCLUSION: Single-stage revACLR with BPTB combined with LET is a safe procedure that shows good objective and subjective outcomes, and a high rate of return to the same level of sport. Reducing rotational instability and strain on intra-articular reconstructed structures results in a low rate of complications and failure.

Varus morphology and its surgical implication in osteoarthritic knee and total knee arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: Knee varus alignment represents a notorious cause of knee osteoarthritis. It can be caused by tibial deformity, combined tibial-femoral deformity and/or ligament imbalance. Understanding malalignment is crucial in total knee arthroplasty to restore frontal plane neutral mechanical axis. The aim of this study was to determine which factor contributes the most to varus osteoarthritic knee and its related surgical implications in performing a total knee arthroplasty. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 140 patients operated for total knee arthroplasty due to a varus knee. Full-leg hip to ankle preoperative X-rays were taken. Radiological parameters recorded were: mechanical axis deviation, hip-knee-ankle, anatomical-mechanical angle, medial neck shaft angle, mechanical lateral distal femoral angle (mLDFA), medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA), joint line convergence angle (JLCA), lateral proximal femoral angle, lateral distal tibial angle (LDTA), femoral bowing, and length of tibia and femur. We also determined ideals tibial and femoral cuts in mm according to mechanical alignment technique. A R2 was calculated based on the linear regression between the predicted values and the observed data. RESULTS: The greatest contributor to arthritic varus (R = 0.444) was MPTA. Minor contributors were mLDFA (R = 0.076), JLCA (R = 0.1554), LDTA (R = 0.065), and femoral bowing (R = 0.049). We recorded an average of 7.6 mm in lateral tibial cut thickness to restore neutral alignment. CONCLUSIONS: The radiological major contributor to osteoarthritic varus knee alignment is related to proximal tibia deformity. As a surgical consequence, during performing total knee arthroplasty, the majority of the correction should therefore be made on tibial cut.