Relationship between tunnel widening and different rehabilitation procedures after ACL reconstruction with quadrupled hamstring tendons

To find out the relationship between different rehabilitation procedures and the tibial tunnel widening after ACL reconstruction.Sixty-five patients undergone ACL reconstructions by using quadrupled semitendinosus and gracilis tendons were divided into two groups. Group A had 33 patients, 19 male, 14 female, average age (31.2 +/- 12.4) years, only ACL reconstruction was performed with Germanic Professor Paessler's technique, and aggressive rehabilitation procedure was used for functional recovery. Group B had 32 patients, 20 male, 12 female, average age (30.3 +/- 10.3) years. Besides ACL reconstruction, every patient in Group B accepted meniscus repair or cartilage repair with microfracture technique, then postoperative conservative rehabilitation procedure was used. Six months after operation, standard posterior-anterior radiographic plates were taken for each patient, CorelDRAW 8.0 software was used to digitize all X-ray plates and measure the upper, middle and lower parts of the tibial tunnel. Magnification of X-ray plates was taken out after measurement. Statistic analysis was done by t-test.Six months after ACL reconstruction, on both the posterior-anterior and lateral X-ray plates the tibial tunnel widening of the upper, middle and lower parts in Group B with aggressive rehabilitation procedure was significantly serious than in Group A with conservative rehabilitation.Rehabilitation procedure after ACL reconstruction is one of the reasons for tunnel widening. It perhaps influences the functional recovery and long-term clinical result of the operated knee by affecting the tunnel widening.PubMed016984-84