CORRELATION OF REMAINING PATELLAR TENDON WIDTH WITH QUADRICEPS STRENGTH AFTER AUTOGENOUS BONE-PATELLAR TENDON-BONE ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION

One hundred twenty-one patients were prospectively studied to determin e whether the different remaining patellar tendon widths after central 10-mm bone-patellar tendon-bone graft harvest influenced the rate and level of quadriceps strength achieved during rehabilitation. Size of the patellar tendon width, measured at the same location in each patie nt, ranged from 24 to 35 mm. For this study, patients were grouped acc ording to their remaining tendon size into small (14 to 17 mm; mean, 1 5.8), medium (18 to 20 mm; mean, 19.2), and large (21 to 25 mm; mean, 22.5) widths. Postoperatively, the patient's isokinetic quadriceps sco res were determined at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. At 6 w eeks, the small-and medium-width tendon groups were significantly weak er than the large-width tendon group. At 3 months, only the small-widt h tendon group continued to be significantly weaker than the large-wid th tendon group. At and beyond 6 months, no statistically significant differences were seen between remaining patellar tendon width groups a nd their isokinetic quadriceps scores. A constant-sized autogenous pat ellar tendon graft may be harvested for anterior cruciate ligament rec onstruction without compromising ultimate postoperative quadriceps str ength recovery.