Lateral Location of the Tibial Tunnel Increases Lateral Meniscal Extrusion After Anatomical Single Bundle Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Takeshi Oshima Samuel Grasso David A. Parker Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute Sydney, Australia
Takeshi Oshima, MD, PhD I have no financial conflicts to disclose
Background Graft tunnel placement is a critical variable in the success of ACL reconstruction. Tibial insertion of ACL is close to the attachment of anterolateral meniscal root (ALMR). 1, 2 63% of ALMR attachment and 41% of ACL are overlapped. 3 Siebold, KSSTA 2015 [1] Tibial tunnel reaming may cause damage to LM attachment. 4 Ferretti, KSSTA 2012 [2]
Background Function of ALMR Anchor to the tibia Injury of the ALMR attachment results in increasing contact pressure. 5 Sensory function Uncalcified and calcified fibrocartilaginous zone of ALMR has nerve fibers. 6 Damage of the ALMR cause the loss of the hoop function and it could be identified as lateral meniscal extrusion (LME). 7 Aim To investigate the relationship between the location of the tibial tunnel and LME after anatomical single bundle ACL reconstruction.
Methods Patient Selection 153 cases - high resolution MRI (Oct 2014- July 2016) 95 cases - meniscal injury 55 cases (35.9%) - no meniscal injury from per-op MRI and intraoperative finding Standard 2..5 mm thk / 2.75 mm sep Femur High-Res. 0.6 mm thk / 0.0 mm sep Tibia Intra-Op v MRI 0.59 ± 0.24 mm 0.60 ± 0.24 mm Intra-Op v CT 0.59 ± 0.25 mm 0.61 ± 0.24 mm MRI V CT 0.48 ± 0.28 mm 0.46 ± 0.27 mm Inclusion criteria 1) Primary single bundle anatomical ACL reconstruction using hamstring autograft 2) No previous knee ligament surgery Exclusion criteria 1) Multiligament reconstruction 2) Any meniscal injury diagnosed by preoperative MRI or intraoperative arthroscopy. Grasso, AJSM 2018 [8]
MRI measurement Lateral meniscal extrusion - The distance (mm) of the lateral meniscal margin from the tibia. 10mm - The distances were standardised by tibial width (TW) and shown as percentage. A Tibial tunnel location - The distance in ML and AP directions from medial tibial eminence. M L - The distances were standardised by TW and TL and shown as percentages. P
Evaluation variables Statistical analysis Age (y), Height (cm), Weight (kg) LM extrusion (%) Tunnel location (%) Tunnel size (mm) Interval from injury to operation (week) One- year Clinical outcome (IKDC, Lysholm, Stability using KT-1000) Statistical analysis A correlation analysis between LM extrusion and each variable The difference in LME (%) between patients above or below the identified cutoff value of ML(%) was evaluated using the Mann Whitney U-test and chi-squared test.
Results: Values and correlation between LME and each parameters Mean (range) r p-value LME (%) 1.13 (-1-3.4) Age (y) 31.8 (15-58) -0.025 0.857 Height (cm) 174.0 (158.5-192.5) 0.078 0.590 Weight (kg) 75.3 (52.0-102.8) -0.044 0.763 Tibial tunnel size 4/3/7/19/15/5/2 0.200 0.155 ML Distance from tibial eminence (%) 3.8 (-0.3 8.2) 0.450 0.0006* AP Distance from tibial eminence (%) 23.1 (13.4-34.7) 0.136 0.324 Interval from injury to surgery (week) 13.2 (2-114) 0.062 0.655 Lysholm 83.3 (50-97.7) -0.147 0.401 IKDC 91.1 (48-100) -0.178 0.266 KT-1000 (mm) 0.47 (-5-8) 0.005 0.975 Lateral location of the tibial tunnel increased LME. LME doesn t influence the short-term clinical outcome.
LME (%) Results: Correlation between LME and ML distance from medial eminence y= 0.32x 0.46 r=0.450 p=0.0006 ML distance from medial tibial eminence (%) Cutoff value: 4% of ML distance Sensitivity 80.0% Specificity 72.5% to more than 1.5% of LME
Results: Comparison between lateral and medial location tunnel groups Lateral location (ML > 4%) Medial location (ML 4%) p-value Number of knees 22 33 Gender (male/female) 16/6 17/16 0.116 Age (y) 31.3 32.3 0.693 Height (cm) 175.1 173.4 0.484 Weight (kg) 75.7 74.7 0.727 Tibial tunnel size (mm) 9.1 9.0 0.111 LME (%) 1.50 0.29 0.0007* Interval to op (weeks) 11.1 14.6 0.852 Lysholm 91.3 90.9 0.802 IKDC 85.0 81.9 0.582 KT-1000 (mm) 0.18 0.75 0.393 LME showed significant difference. There was no significant difference between both group for clinical outcome.
Limitations The LME was evaluated from only postoperative MRI. LME doesn t influence the short-term clinical outcomes. Future plan Comparing pre- and post high resolution MRI, evaluate the attachment loss, the location of tibial tunnel and LME. A longer follow-up is required to confirm the long-term relationship between LME and clinical outcomes.
Conclusions Lateral location of the tibial tunnel increased risk of lateral meniscal extrusion after single bundle ACL reconstruction using hamstring autograft. The lateral meniscal extrusion doesn t influence the short-term clinical outcomes.
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