Abstract:
Purpose: This dissertation deals with the femoral pressfit – technique in ACL replacement using a patellar tendon graft. The influence of different bone plug lengths as well as the influence of different bone plug – ligament angles was investigated.
Materials and methods: In 41 porcine lower limbs a bone plug was harvested out of the patella with the particular adherent patellar tendon. Half of the bone plugs were shortened to a total cylindric length of 5 mm, whereas the total cylindric length of the other 20 bone plugs amounted to 10 mm.
A tunnel with a diameter of 9 mm was drilled into the femurs of the specimen. The bone plugs had a diameter of 9,4 mm and were inserted into the femoral tunnel. The drilling of the tunnel had been carried out either in the direction of the femur axis (0°) or in an angle of 60° to this axis.
After fixing them, the specimen were tested in a material testing system.
First, a cyclic test, which included 200 cycles of stretching (0 – 2 mm), was performed. Thereafter, the specimen were loaded to failure in a failure test. Each time maximum forces and failure modes were recorded.
Results: No specimen was destroyed or apparently injured by cyclic testing. The average maximum force with a total cylindric length of 10 mm and a plug ligament angle of 0° was 276 N in the failure test. With a length of only 5 mm and an angle of 0°, it amounted to 222 N. In those groups with a plug- ligament angle of 60°, the average maximum forces were 601 N in the group with a total cylindric length of 10 mm and 574 N with only 5 mm total cylindric length.
Considering one outlier, the t- test showed a significant difference between the groups with a total cylindric length of 10 mm respectively 5 mm (p= 0,047) in terms of maximum forces in the failure test. This difference could not be found for the groups with a plug-ligament angle (PLA) of 60° (p= 0,36).
Conclusion: In ACL – replacement using the pressfit - technique, a bone plug with a total cylindric length of 5 mm cannot assure sufficient stability while the knees are flexed (PLA of 0°), whereas a length of 10 mm is sufficient for extension and flexion of the knee (PLA 0° as well as 60°); even with a pressfit of only 0,4 mm.