Mini - incision Technique for Cruciate Reconstruction

Cho, Duck Yun; Seo, Jai Gon; Kang, Tae Gyoo

Abstract

The most frequent complication of the open arthrotomy for the cruciate reconstruction are quadriceps weakness and flexion contracture of the knee. Besides complications such as chondromalacia, patellar maltracking, saphenous neuralgia and patellar crepitus are not infrequent in wide open arthrotomy. We adopted an open method with smaller incision like arthroscopic maneuver to reduce these complications. The pre-requisite of this mini-incision are arranging a proper instrument and graft material. We advocate Achilles autograft which is longer and more flexible than other autografts and by taking advantage of these characteristics, we could performed reconstruction with relatively small incision. The advantages of mini-incision technique are early recovery of quadriceps function and little complication. We applied this method in ACL, PCL and simultaneous ACL & PCL reconstruction, with the result of early recovery of qudriceps function.