In vivo determination of knee kinematics in patients with a hamstring or patellar tendon ACL graft

Video fluoroscopy was used to assess the in vivo kinematics for patients with a patellar-tendon-bone or double-looped semitendinosus gracilis anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) graft. Patients with a double-looped semitendinosus gracilis ACL graft experienced kinematic patterns more similar to the normal knee than patients with a patellar-tendon-bone reconstruction. Patients with a double-looped semitendinosus gracilis reconstruction also experienced more anterior contact at full extension and throughout the flexion cycle than patients with a patellar-tendon-bone reconstruction, which resulted in patients with double-looped semitendinosus gracilis grafts experiencing more posterior femoral rollback. Therefore, removal of the central third of the patella ligament leads to a decrease in quadriceps mechanism efficiency, which resulted in the more posterior contact positions demonstrated by the patients with patellar-tendon-bone grafts in this study.