Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 11, 2025
Author Spotlight: Implementing the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Concept in Rehabilitation Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Published on: March 1, 2024
Revision ACL reconstruction, but not bilateral ACL reconstruction, is associated with clinically relevant inferior
Riccardo Cristiani1,2, Eric Hamrin Senorski3, Camilo P Helito4,5
1Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Section of Sports Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Purpose:
To evaluate and compare the subjective knee function in patients undergoing revision and bilateral anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR) with those undergoing primary ACLR in a large cohort.
Methods:
Patients without concomitant ligament injuries who underwent primary, revision or bilateral ACLR at the Capio Artro Clinic, Stockholm, Sweden, between 2005 and 2018 were identified. The Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was collected preoperatively and at 1, 2 and 5 years postoperatively from the Swedish National Knee Ligament Registry. Patients who underwent revision and bilateral ACLR were compared with those who underwent primary ACLR (control group) using Student's t test.
Results:
A total of 6831 patients (6102 with primary ACLRs, 343 with revision ACLRs and 386 with bilateral ACLRs) were included. Preoperatively, there were significant but nonclinically relevant differences in favour of the revision ACLR group for KOOS Symptoms, Pain, Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Sport/Rec subscale scores compared with the primary ACLR group. Postoperatively, except for the 1-year Symptoms and ADL subscales, the revision ACLR group reported significantly lower scores on all KOOS subscales than the primary ACLR group, with clinically relevant differences (>8-10 points) for the 1-, 2- and 5-year Sport/Rec and Quality of Life (QOL) subscales. The bilateral ACLR group reported significantly, but not clinically relevant, inferior scores on the 1-year Symptoms and QOL subscales and the 5-year Sport/Rec and QOL subscales compared with the primary ACLR group.
Conclusions:
Revision ACLR, but not bilateral ACLR, was associated with clinically relevant inferior subjective knee function compared with primary ACLR. It is important to counsel patients regarding their future subjective knee function after repeated ACLR. Compared to primary ACLR, inferior subjective results should be expected after revision ACLR, but not after bilateral ACLR.
Level Of Evidence:
Level III.
More Related Videos
06:27Author Spotlight: Investigating Early Events and Long-Term Effects of ACL Injuries for Osteoarthritis Progression
Published on: September 29, 2023
08:30Surgical Retrieval, Isolation and In vitro Expansion of Human Anterior Cruciate Ligament-derived Cells for Tissue Engineering Applications
Published on: April 30, 2014