ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Orthopedic Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1571180
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Knee Preservation and Arthroplasty: Advancing Techniques and Technologies for Enhanced Surgical OutcomesView all 5 articles
The impact of bone channel entrance selection within the footprint region of the femoral anterior cruciate ligament on the achievement of near isometric ACL reconstruction in rabbits
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chinese PLA Medical School, Beijing, China
- 2the Third Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 3The Forth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 4Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
- 5Hainan Hospital of PLA General Hospital, Hai Nan, China
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Construction of an animal model of rabbit anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) near isometric reconstruction is a basic condition to study the patterns of graft stress and tendon to bone healing. The impact of alterations in the bone tunnel entrance within the femoral footprint region on graft tension remains uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine the femoral tunnel entrance that provides the closest approximation to near-isometric reconstruction within the femoral ACL footprint.Eighteen Cadaveric rabbit knees were used in this experiment. The semitendinosus autografts were employed for ACL reconstruction. Six knees were reconstructed using the middle position of the femoral footprint area as the entrance (Mitunnel), six knees used a position 2 mm anterior to the middle (An-tunnel), and six knees used a position 2 mm posterior to the middle (Po-tunnel). All grafts were pretensioned with 10N at 150° and 90° flexion and firmly fixed at the tibial end. The change in graft strain was measured under maximum flexion and extension in the rabbit knee joints.Results: Under a maximum flexion of 150° and 10N pretension, the graft strain decreased significantly during knee extension in the An-tunnel and Mi-tunnel groups and there was no significant decrease in the Po-tunnel group. There were significant differences in graft strain between the Po-tunnel and An-tunnel during knee extension at 135°-35° (P < 0.05). Under 90° flexion and 10N pretension, the Po-tunnel group showed a minimal change in graft strain compared to the An-tunnel and Mi-tunnel groups with knee extension and flexion(135°-35°)except at the initial pretension Angle. There was a statistically significant difference in graft tension when the Po-tunnel compared to the An-tunnel(P＜0.05).The Po-tunnel within the femoral footprint region may be the best choice for ACL near isometric reconstruction in rabbits.
Keywords: ACL isometric reconstruction, femoral tunnel entrance, Graft strain, tunnel position, isometric
Received: 05 Feb 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Xu, Wang, Zhang, Zhao, Liu, Li and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chunbao Li, The Forth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
Yujie Liu, The Forth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
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