Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) with palmar brevis tendon autograf: Pintos-TogniI Tecnique.

Follow-up of 23 patients operated between April 1997 and April 1999.

Dr. Luis Fernando Pintos
• Surgeon. Traumatology and Orthopedic Surgery Specialist
• Director of the Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute (IMDYR), Argentinian Soccers Union.

Dr. Fernando Togni
• Surgeon. Traumatology and Ortopedic Surgery Specialist.
Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute (IMDYR), Argentinian Soccers Union.

Summary

All the patients were operated by our surgery team integrated by the same professionals. Their age ranged 19 to 26. All of them were high competetion male soccer players that suffered the injury during a match or training.

The sugery was performed 1 to 22 months after the accident. Some of them were reoperated. We performed the palmar brevis tendon autograft using osteo-femoral anchorage with perforate screw.

The tolerance to the procedure was excellent. There no post operative complications, such as residual synovitis, infection or patellar tendinitis with quadriceps hypotrophy.
The anatomical results were evaluated by means off the Lachman Test to compare differencial laxity between both limbs. It was null in 19 cases, 0-2 mm in 2 patients and 2-4 mm in 2 cases.
Lateral view radiographic examinations showed the same results when evaluating the anterior drawer image.

All the patients were members of the Argentinian Soccers Union.