Background
ACL tears in adolescent athletes are very common events especially in sports with high stress on the knee for cutting forces. The goal of surgical procedures in skeletally immature patients is to restore joint stability avoiding adverse effect involving the growth process.
Methods
We included in the study 24 patients who had radiographic evidence of open physes, less than 14ys old at the time of surgery, whit a minimum follow-up of 8 years. All the patient were athletes. All re-called patients completed a questionnaire, IKDC subjective and symptom rating scale and Tegner Activity Scale, Biomechanical Outcomes of KT1000, Gait Analysis, Stabilometric and Isokinetic evaluation. A plain radiograph of both lower limbs was performed for all the patients aiming to obtain a precise measurement of the limbs' length and the mechanical axis angles.
Results
All re-called patients returned to sport activities in the mean time of 6,43 months. No re-rupture and no re-operation due to growth abnormalities has been reported. The mean difference in length between the surgically treated legs and the contralateral legs was 0.4 cm (range -0.2 to 0.7); the mean artrometry side to side difference measured with KT-1000 Artrometer was 5.2 (range from 3.5 to 7) in the pre-op evaluation and 0.8 (range from 0 to 2.5) in the post-op evaluation.
DOI: 10.3944/AOTT.2016.15.0392
This abstract belongs to the un-edited version of the article and is only for informative purposes. Published version may differ from the current version.