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Iatrogenic Anterior Knee Pain with Special Emphasis on the Clinical, Radiographical, Histological, Ultrastructural and Biochemical Aspects After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Using Ipsilateral Autografts

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Patellofemoral Pain, Instability, and Arthritis

Abstract

At the present time, arthroscopic ACL reconstruction is one of the most common surgical procedures in sports medicine. Every year, only in Sweden, approximately 4,000 procedures are performed according to the Swedish National ACL Register (www.aclregister.nu). After the introduction of the arthroscopic technique and the opportunity to perform reproducible replacements of the ruptured ACL, the results in terms of restored laxity and a return to sports activities have generally been found to be good. However, persistent donor-site morbidity such as tenderness, anterior knee pain, disturbance in anterior knee sensitivity and the inability to kneel and knee-walk is still a problem and is present in approximately 40–60%, of patients who have undergone arthroscopic ACL reconstruction using patellar tendon autografts [44]. Despite efforts to utilize synthetic materials [21] and allografts [36], the use of autografts probably remains the best option for the replacement of the torn ACL. Common autograft alternatives for reconstruction or augmentation of the ACL include the use of the hamstring tendons [11], the patellar tendon [22] and the quadriceps tendon [18, 32].

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Catarina Kartus for the permission to redraw the illustration.

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Correspondence to Jüri Kartus MD, PhD .

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Kartus, J., Ejerhed, L., Movin, T. (2010). Iatrogenic Anterior Knee Pain with Special Emphasis on the Clinical, Radiographical, Histological, Ultrastructural and Biochemical Aspects After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Using Ipsilateral Autografts. In: Zaffagnini, S., Dejour, D., Arendt, E. (eds) Patellofemoral Pain, Instability, and Arthritis. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05424-2_14

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