A comparison of hamstring autograft versus bone patella tendon bone autograft for reconstruction of anterior cruciate ligament: A prospective study of 30 cases

Background and Aim: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient knee usually present with instability of the knee, in our study we are comparing the results of ACL reconstruction using bone-patellar-bone and quadrupled stranded hamstring tendon grafts. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients presenting with chief complaints of the knee instability were diagnosed clinically by Lachman test, anterior drawer test, pivot shift test and confirmed by diagnostic arthroscopy or MRI to have ACL tear. ACL tears that are more than 6 weeks old are included. Fifteen patients were treated with ACL reconstruction using autologous ipsilateral hamstringtendon and 15 patients were treated with bone patellar tendon bone graft through arthroscopy assisted technique. All patients were reviewed and analyzed at the end of 1 year post-operatively. Assessment includes pre-operative, intra-operative findings and post-operative subjective assessment scores and examination findings, pre- and post-operatively the Lysholm score, Tegner activity level, and International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) evaluation system were used as scoring systems. Results: Comparisons of results within the same groups showed statistically significant improvement as assessed by IKDC, Tegners and Lysholm operative scores. There was also significant correlation between manual Lachman test and stress laxometry findings. There was no statistically significant difference between scores of two groups (hamstring and bone patella tendon). Conclusions: Arthroscopic ACL reconstruction by either quadrupled hamstring tendon graft or bone patellar tendon graft gives equally satisfactory results