Correlation between height and semitendinosus tendon length, prediction of minimum semitendinosus tendon length based on height-an easy and accurate method.

Purpose: To find out an easy method to predict tendon length on the basis of patient height.
Methods: A prospective study which included 256 patients. All patients underwent ligament reconstruction using semitendinosus graft. Pre-operatively age, gender, height and weight were noted. Harvested semitendinosus graft's length and diameter was measured.
Results: Both the patient height as well as weight correlated with tendon diameter and tendon length (p-value < 0.05). A simple equation was also derived to pre-operatively predict tendon length.
Conclusion: To predict graft size, surgeon should consider anthropometric variables. If we divide height of the patient with six, we get the approximate length of the tendon and by subtracting three from the obtained value we are more than 90% sure that ST would not be shorter than this. Level of evidence: level 4.