Experimental cranial cruciate replacement in cattle using a patellar ligament graft.

The cranial cruciate ligament was surgically removed from the right stifle joint in ten heavy steers and two bulls, and replaced with a tendon-ligament graft harvested from the tendon of the gluteobiceps muscle including a portion of the lateral patellar ligament. Two surgical techniques (placing the graft through a femoral bone tunnel and placing the graft through the joint space) were compared using six animals in each group.Both surgical techniques were easily performed and caused minimal postoperative inflammation. The clinical response observed over four to five months was considered satisfactory in 9 of 12 animals. However, the tensile strength of the graft determined at necropsy was less than the cranial cruciate ligament in the opposite normal stifle in all animals tested.