Prediction of Hamstring Autograft sizes for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction using Preoperative Magnetic...

The purpose of this study is to determine whether preoperative magnetic resonance image measurements can predict the hamstring tendon autograft diameter during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

We prospectively evaluated Forty-two patients with anterior cruciate ligament injury who underwent reconstruction using hamstring tendon autograft. Preoperative diameters and cross-sectional areas of the hamstring tendons were estimated using magnetic resonance imaging of the knee. Intraoperative diameters of the hamstring tendon graft were measured using a cylindrical graft sizer. We used Pearson's correlation test to compare the Preoperative and intraoperative graft size measurements. A possible cutoff value for the hamstring graft size was determined using Receiver operating characteristic analysis.

The mean age of the patient in the study was 27.5 ± 8.5 years. There were statistically significant correlations between preoperative and intraoperative hamstring tendon graft measurements (P < 0.001). Our study found 13.3 mm² cross-sectional area as the cutoff for predicting 7mm of quadrupled hamstring graft size with both sensitivity and specificity of 85.7 %, respectively.

We can conclude that preoperative magnetic resonance imaging measurements can predict the intraoperative graft size. This study can help in preoperatively planning for the graft choice.