Role of gracilis harvesting in four-strand hamstring tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a double-blinded prospective randomized clinical trial

• Published in: Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2015-04, Vol.23 (4), p.1086-1091
• Main Authors: Karimi-Mobarakeh, Mahmoud, Mardani-Kivi, Mohsen, Mortazavi, Ahmad, Saheb-Ekhtiari, Khashayar, Hashemi-Motlagh, Keyvan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anterior Cruciate Ligament - surgery; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction - methods; Arthritis; Clinical trials; Double-Blind Method; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Knee; Knee Injuries - physiopathology; Knee Injuries - surgery; Knee Joint - physiopathology; Knee Joint - surgery; Ligaments; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Orthopedics; Osteoarthritis; Prospective Studies; Range of motion; Range of Motion, Articular; Rupture; Surgical outcomes; Surgical techniques; Tendons; Tendons - transplantation; Tissue and Organ Harvesting - methods; Transplantation, Autologous
• ISSN: 0942-2056; 1433-7347
• DOI: 10.1007/s00167-014-2890-z

Purpose Weakness in knee flexion following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is one of the key issues in the treatment of an ACL tear. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare clinical outcome measures of ACL reconstruction using semitendinosus autograft (ST) versus semitendinosus + gracilis (ST/G) reconstructive techniques. Methods In a double-blind randomized clinical study, 19 patients with an ACL tear underwent either ST (59) or ST/G (61) and observed for 1 year. Both patients and the final examiner were unaware as to the type of graft received. Patients were evaluated according to subjective criteria, functional assessment tests, knee isometric torques, knee laxity using KT-2000 and knee range of motion. Results The study included 21 (17.6 %) female and 99 (82.4 %) male patients with a mean age of 29.9 ± 7.8 in the ST group and 32.4 ± 6.3 in the ST/G group. There were no significant differences found in surgical complications; IKD; Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score; Lysholm; strength of the knee isometric flexors; and flexion and extension loss between the two groups. At the final visit, 86.9 % of ST group and 89.6 % of ST/G group had side-to-side difference of laxity