[Chronic knee instability. Technics and results of ligament plasty in sports injuries]

Chronic laxity of the knee in sportsmen is limited in practice, owing to the mechanisms of blockage of rotation, to lesions of the medial and anterior cruciate ligaments, associated or not with tears of the meniscus. Full assessment is essential to draw up a full therapeutic plan. It is very difficult, even when clinical examination is completed by excellent XRays. The great technical facility of operations of musculo-aponeurotic transposition, has led surgeons to discard plastic operations on the ligaments. They do, however, give the best chance of return to sporting activity. Two techniques are discussed, one a plastic of the medial ligament, the other designed to palliate rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. These operations are strong and precise straightaway but the prognosis depends mainly on the number of structures affected.