EFFECTS OF INITIAL GRAFT TENSION ON CLINICAL OUTCOME AFTER ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION - AUTOGENOUS DOUBLED HAMSTRING TENDONSCONNECTED IN SERIES WITH POLYESTER TAPES

We conducted a prospective, randomized, short-term study to clarify th e effects of initial graft tension on clinical outcome after arthrosco pically assisted anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with autoge nous doubled semitendinosus and gracilis tendons connected in series w ith polyester tapes. Seventy Japanese patients with chronic, ''isolate d'' anterior cruciate ligament tears were entered in the study. The pa tients were randomly divided into three groups based on initial graft tension: Group 1 (20 N), Group 2 (40 N), or Group 3 (80 N). No statist ical differences were noted among the three groups with regard to thei r background factors. The patients were observed for 2 years or more a fter surgery. Postoperatively, the average side-to-side difference in anterior laxity was 2.2+/-2.4 mm in Group 1, 1.4+/-1.8 mm in Group 2, and 0.6+/-1.7 mm in Group 3. Analysis of variance testing showed that the post-operative laxity in Group 3 was significantly less than that in Group 1. Spearman's rank-order correlation analysis also demonstrat ed significant correlation between the magnitude of initial graft tens ion and the magnitude of the postoperative laxity. This study demonstr ates that relatively high initial tension (up to 80 N) reduces the pos toperative anterior laxity of the knee joint after anterior cruciate l igament reconstruction using the doubled autogenous hamstring tendons connected in series with polyester tapes.