Electrothermal Shrinkage For the ACL Deficient Knee

Description: Abstract
The effectiveness of electrothermal shrinkage for the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient knee was evaluated. There were fourteen patients in the study, with nine native ligaments, one patellar tendon graft and four quadrupled hamstring tendon grafts. All patients with a native ligament were found intraoperatively to have greater than 50% continuity of their ACL, and those with a prior reconstruction were found to have anatomically appropriate tunnel positions. The patients were treated with radiofrequency thermal shrinkage and followed prospectively for an average duration of 18.9 months. . At the time of surgery the laxity was chronic (as defined as greater than three months duration since injury) in all but one of the patients. The pre-operative KT-1000 arthrometer side-to-side difference averaged 5.9 mm of translation, with an immediate post-operative change to an average of 1.3 mm. There were only two failures in the study. Failure was defined as the requirement of re-operation to achieve a stable knee, or a side-to-side difference of greater than 5mm. Our study shows that it appears that in a select population, thermal shrinkage can be an appropriate surgical alternative to reconstruction.