The Relationship of the Femoral Origin of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament and the Distal Femoral Physeal Plate in the Skeletally Immature Knee An Anatomic Study

We defined the anatomic relationship of the anterior cruciate ligament femoral origin to the distal femoral physis in the skeletally immature knee with use of 12 fresh-frozen human fetal specimens (ages, 20 to 36 weeks). Each specimen underwent magnetic reso-nance imaging, was dissected free of soft tissue, sec-tioned in the sagittal plane, and stained. The spatial relationship of 1) the epiphyseal side of the physeal proliferative zone to the nearest point of bony attach-ment of the anterior cruciate ligament and 2) the origin of the anterior cruciate ligament to the over-the-top position were measured. The same measurements were made in 13 skeletally immature knees (ages, 5 to 15 years). We found that the femoral origin of the feta