Arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament repair: preliminary results and instrumented testing for anterior stability.

The authors present their preliminary results of arthroscopic primary repair of anterior cruciate ligament tears performed on five patients, with a mean follow-up time of 9.2 months. All patients were re-evaluated by subjective questionnaire and clinical examination, and tested for anterior drawer at 20 degrees flexion using the KT-1000 Knee Ligament Arthrometer and the UCLA Instrumented Clinical Knee Testing Apparatus. Subjectively, four patients were rated as fair and one as good. The Lachman test was negative in two and trace or mildly positive in three patients. Pivot shift test was negative in all. Instrumented testing demonstrated three patients with increased anterior laxities outside the normal range, and two of these patients also showed reduced anterior stiffnesses which were beyond the normal range. Based on these results, the authors question the feasibility of arthroscopic repair of anterior cruciate ligament tears and suggest a more objective evaluation of this procedure.