Partial ACL Tears Research Articles

The natural history of conservatively treated partial anterior cruciate ligament tears.

Twenty-five patients with arthroscopically proven partial ACL tears were reviewed. All patients underwent examination under anesthesia and arthroscopy following an acute injury to a previously normal knee. The percentage of tear was estimated during arthroscopy. Postoperatively, patients were treated with early motion and hamstring strengthening. Weightbearing and quadriceps rehabilitation were delayed. A detailed rating of symptoms and function was performed at a minimum of 18 months after injury, using a modification of the AOSSM ACL follow-up form. Neither the estimated percentage of ligament tear, length of followup, nor age at time of injury significantly correlated with clinical score at followup. Thirteen patients underwent partial meniscectomy at the time of original arthroscopy. Their clinical outcome was not different from those without meniscectomy. Two patients (8%) underwent ACL reconstruction 8 and 64 months after injury, respectively. Overall results were judged as excellent (28%), good (32%), fair (24%), and poor (16%). Only 44% were able to resume sports at their preinjury level, and 72% had activity-related symptoms.

Fat pad adhesion to partially torn anterior cruciate ligament: a cause of knee locking.

Isolated damage to the ACL was found on arthroscopic examination of 51 patients who had symptomatic knees. There were 47 male and 4 female patients. The average age of the patients was 26.5 years, ranging from 13 to 43 years. Twenty-four of the patients had isolated partial tears of the ACL, and 27 had isolated complete tears. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical patterns and arthroscopic findings in these two groups. On examination, 12 patients were found to have locked knees. An additional six patients gave a history of knee locking. All 18 of these patients were clinically suspected of having meniscal damage; however, only partial and complete ACL tears were found at arthroscopy. Of these 18 patients who had locking knees, 15 had a partial tear of the ACL and 3 had a complete tear. Locking was involved primarily in the group with partial ACL tears (15 of 24); only 3 of the 27 patients who had complete tears described locking. Of the 12 patients who had locked knees on examination, all were found to have fibrosis and adhesions of the fat pad and the synovium adjacent to the ACL stump. All 12 of these patients had a partial tear of the ACL. The fibrosis and adhesions were histologically documented in 10 of those 12 patients. The three patients who had partial ACL tears and histories of locking were not observed to have adhesions of synovium to the fat pad, but did have an entrapped remnant of ACL between the tibial plateau and femoral condyle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)