Summary

This study examines the differences in postoperative pain and recovery between hamstring and quadriceps tendon grafts for ACL repair, finding no significant differences in overall recovery and return-to-sport times at 360 days post-surgery.

Abstract

Introduction

Anterior cruciate ligament rupture has evolved to be one of the most common sports injuries with a remarkable increase in its incidence in the last two decades, with Return-To-Sport being a crucial approach in the choice of autologous graft for its surgical repair, the most commonly used being hamstring and quadriceps tendon graft.

Methods

A prospective randomized study was performed with 32 patients divided into two groups, one for each type of graft, with 13 patients in each. They were evaluated before surgery, at 30, 180 and 360 days after the procedure using scales such as Lysholm, mCKRS and ACL-RSI, and their previous activity level was considered using the Tegner score.

Results

It was observed that at 30 and 180 days after surgery, there were significant differences in pain assessment using the VAS scale between the groups, while at 360 days no significant differences were observed. No significant differences were found in Lysholm and mCKRS scale scores in either group at days 30, 180, and 360, but significant differences were found in ACL-RSI scale scores at 30 and 180 days between the two groups, which did not hold at 360 days.

Conclusion

Despite the difference in postoperative pain, return-to-sport times and overall recovery showed no significant differences between the two types of grafts.