Serial magnetic resonance imaging of the donor site after harvesting the central third of the patellar tendon - A prospective study of 37 patients after arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

The aim of this prospective study was to follow the development of repair t issue in the donor-site area using serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation and to assess whether the MRI findings were correlated with dono r-site morbidity. Thirty-seven consecutive patients with unilateral anterio r cruciate ligament injuries undergoing elective reconstruction of the liga ment were included in the study. They were aged 27 (range 14-50) years. The graft was harvested through two 25-mm vertical incisions with the aim of p rotecting the infrapatellar nerve and sparing the paratenon. The tendon def ect was left open. The patients underwent MRI evaluation at 6 weeks, 6 mont hs and 27 months postoperatively. A final clinical follow-up was made 25 (r ange 23-29) months postoperatively. MRI demonstrated that the donor-site ga p, i.e. die area corresponding to a pathological non-tendinous-like tissue signal, was 9 (range 4-18) mm at 6 weeks, 5 (range 2-14) mm at 6 months and 2 (range 0-5) mm at. 27 months. The size of the donor-site gap had signifi cantly decreased at 6 months compared with 6 weeks (P = 0.0001), as well as at 27 months compared with 6 months (P = 0.0001). We conclude that die pat ellar tendon at the donor site healed gradually, as expressed by a decrease in the area of non-tendinous-like tissue signal on the serial MRI evaluati ons.