Roofplasty requirements in vitro for different tibial hole placements in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

In this study we sought both to quantify the forces that result in anterior cruciate ligament graft impingement and the amount of roofplasty necessary to prevent it. The perpendicular force of the intercondylar roof against an anterior cruciate ligament graft was measured in seven fresh-frozen cadaveric knees. Two tibial hole placements were evaluated: an anterior/eccentric hole (26.6% +/- 3.1% of the sagittal depth) and a customized hole aligned 4 to 5 mm posterior and parallel to the slope of the intercondylar roof in the extended knee (42.0% +/- 2.6% of the sagittal depth). A transducer that measured the contact force with the graft was implanted in the roof. An extensive roofplasty was performed so that the sensor would bear all of the roof force. Graft tension was also measured. Extension moments were applied to 20 N-m with a six degree of freedom load application system. Load cycles were repeated with the roof force sensor backed out in 0.8 mm increments. The sensor backout represented a corresponding amount of bone removal in a roofplasty. The flexion angle at roof-graft contact was consistently greater using the anterior tibial hole than the customized one. This held true for all increments of sensor backout. With the anterior hole, the roof sensor (no backout) contacted the graft at 12.8 degrees +/- 6.7 degrees of flexion, whereas the customized hole resulted in contact at 4.1 degrees +/- 4.2 degrees (P = 0.020).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)