High ACL fibers in femoral footprint bear more load vs low fibers

Orthopedics Today—December 30, 2016

Orthopedics Today reports on a recent study that found that high fibers carried 83.9% of the total ACL load with an anterior tibial force at 30 degrees of flexion.

The reporter speaks with Danyal H. Nawabi, MD, sports medicine surgeon at HSS and study investigator, who said "these findings suggest that if you place an ACL graft eccentrically in the direct insertion, higher in the footprint adjacent to the lateral intercondylar ridge and in the anteromedial bundle location, you may be reconstructing a portion of the native ACL that bears the most load during stability examinations, yet is also isometric."

Dr. Nawabi added, "We must be careful not to translate these findings for the native ACL directly to current ACL reconstruction techniques. What is needed is a careful comparison of these findings in this study to a cadaveric study looking at ACL grafts placed in similar locations. If the findings are similar, then we need to try the same locations in a clinical setting and see whether failure rates can be lowered by inserting a more load-bearing graft and isometric graft."

Read the full article at Healio.com.