Arthroscopic Intercondylar Notch Bone Marrow Aspiration During Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

The anterior cruciate ligament is the most commonly injured ligament, with up to 10% of surgery failure. Atraumatic instability in the early postoperative period (<6 months) occurs as the result of poor surgical technique, failure of graft integration, or early mechanical overload during rehabilitation. Engineered cell therapy is a developing resource designed to increase the rate of tendon-to-bone interface healing. We describe a simple and safe technique to harvest mesenchymal stem cells by arthroscopic bone marrow aspiration from the intercondylar notch.