Nootropic Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 In the world of orthopedics, the complete ACL tear is a common injury, and a serious one at that. How it has been fixed has been debated: Autograft vs. Allograft, synethic grafts, xenografts, all kinds of crazy stuf. What I'm curious about is what evidence provides for the best graft? Nearly all ACL reconstructions are performed with an autograft (half by patellar tendon and half by hamstring tendon) with a small percentage by allograft and synethic grafts are no longer used (they are not able to adapt to the stress and become more of a natural ligament, hence the failiure rate is very high). Anyone have any ideas on the best graft? I'm more of a candidate for hamstring grafts, mostly because their tensile strength is extremely high (4300 Newtons vs. 2900 for patellar tendons). However, the pateller tendon graft often does not experience a phenomenon known as tunnel widening, in which the tibial and femoral holes become larger, which makes a revision surgery more difficult. As well as it is soft tissue bonding to bone, making for a longer healing time. And even though the decrease in hamstring strength is negligent, it would preferrably be better for the patient to know they are not going to "lose" any strength of any sort. However, patellar tendon's healing time is much shorter, requiring a faster and earlier rehibalitation program for those patients. However, I'm just curious of anyone's opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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