Return to Sport and Rate of Re-Injury in Athletes after Double-Bundle or Single-Bundle ACL Reconstruction - Minimum Five Years Follow-Up

Objectives: Compare, retrospectively, the medium- and long-term of return to sport rates and re-injury of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in patients submitted to single -bundle (SB) compared to doublebundle (DB) technique reconstruction.Methods: Athletes operated by SB or DB ACL reconstruction, with at least five years of follow-up at a single center, were included. The following data were collected: demographic data; competitive sports practice before the injury; previous surgery; injury/surgery to the contralateral knee; return to sports and level of the return; re-injury (time of the re-injury after the first surgery; mechanism of trauma for the re-injury; necessity of operative treatment); signs and complaints related to the knee the last clinical consultation.Results: Seventy-six athletes (۲۷ SB and ۴۹ DB) were included. The return to sport rate (۹۸%) was the same for both groups, and the return to the previous level rate showed an improvement in the DB group but without statistical significance (۶۳% vs. ۷۹%; P = ۰.۱۷۳). However, other outcomes showed higher results for the DB group: lower reinjury rate throughout the follow-up period (۴۱% vs. ۱۸%; P = ۰.۰۳۴) and during the first year of follow-up (۲۲% vs. ۴%; P = ۰.۰۲۱), and less stiffness (۰% vs. ۲۲%, P = ۰.۰۰۱). While in primary reconstruction cases, there was not a higher re-injury rate using SB (P = ۰.۷۴۴), in the revision cases, SB was correlated with more re-injuries than DB (P = ۰.۰۰۲).Conclusion: The overall re-injury in the medium- and long-term and the return to practice sports at the same level as before surgery in athletes submitted to DB reconstruction were slightly better than those submitted to SB reconstruction, especially in the cases that were asecond time lesion ( revisioned knees). Level of evidence: II

کلیدواژه ها:

anterior cruciate ligament ، Arthroscopy ، Athletes ، Double-bundle ، knee ، Sport