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Knee: S. Church and J. F. Keating Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament: TIMING OF SURGERY AND THE INCIDENCE OF MENISCAL TEARS AND DEGENERATIVE CHANGE J Bone Joint Surg Br 2005; 87-B: 1639-1642 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament

Mark Edwards, David M. Bunting, and Paul Hamilton   (13 March 2006)

Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament 13 March 2006
Mark Edwards, SHO - Orthopaedics Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath. U.K., David M. Bunting, and Paul Hamilton Send letter to journal: Re: Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament mark_edwards{at}doctors.net.uk Mark Edwards, et al.	Sir, We read this article with interest. Through retrospective analysis of case and operation notes, the authors report a lower incidence of meniscal tears and degeneration in those patients who have reconstruction of their ACL within one year of injury. We would like to make the following points: 1. The results of two different operations, ie reconstruction with hamstring graft and reconstruction with patellar tendon graft, are included in this study. 2. The authors devote three of six tables (Tables I, IV and VI) and considerable text to their analysis of the subgroups A to E. We wonder what this analysis adds to the work, given that the numbers of patients in the subgroups is clearly too small to enable any conclusions to be drawn. 3. We find it impossible, from the data presented, to discriminate between meniscal tears sustained at the time of the ACL rupture (ie acute) and those which occurred later (ie chronic). M. Edwards, SHO - Orthopaedics, D.M. Bunting, P. Hamilton, Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, UK.