THE LIGAMENT AUGMENTATION DEVICE IN HAMSTRING GRAFTS FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT

Twenty-eight patients who had reconstructions of the anterior cruciate ligament with a ligament augmentation device in the semitendinosus an d gracilis tendons were compared with 32 patients who had reconstructi ons with semitendinosus and gracilis tendons alone. Preoperatively, th ere was no significant difference between the 2 groups with respect to age, sex, Tegner activity level, and time from injury to operation. M ean postoperative followup was 31.4 months for the augmentation group and 32.3 months for the nonaugmentation group. At postoperative evalua tion, there was no difference in the 2 groups with respect to Lysholm knee scores, return to activity as measured by Tegner levels, KT-1000 arthrometer laxity testing, presence of pivot shift or Lachman sign, r ange of motion, and the patient's subjective overall rating of the sur gery. Twenty-six of the 28 patients (93%) with augmentation rated thei r results as either ''good'' or ''excellent'' compared with 30 of the 32 patients (94%) with no ligament augmentation who rated their result s as good or excellent. Four patients with the ligament augmentation d evices needed reoperation for recurrent effusions and pain. No patient s in the nonaugmentation group had recurrent effusions.