Introduction
Hamstring identification and harvesting is one of the most important steps of ACL reconstruction (ACLR). Recent studies have described a vascular landmark that aimed to improve procedure predictability and decrease harvest-related complications. It is reported that the vascular landmark called either “sentinel vessel” or inferior medial geniculate artery branch (bIMGA) may not be present in all patients.
Study goal
To assess the anatomical variability of this vascular structure during our ACLRs.
Material And Method
We performed a prospective study on a lot of consecutive patients who underwent ACLR with hamstring tendon (HT) autograft. All of the patients were operated by the same main surgeon and surgical team, in the same hospital.
The harvesting incision was performed using the anatomical landmarks described in current literature. The presence/absence of the bIMGA was noted for every patient. The presence/absence of the bIMGA was associated with age interval, sex, and level of physical activity.
Results
Our lot size was 213 patients (135 males and 78 females), ranging from 15 to 58 years old. The bIMGA was encountered in 73 males (54.07%) and 26 females (33.3%). The highest incidence of vascular presence was the < 20 years old for males (9 patients out of 13; 69.2%) and females (12 patients out of 19; 63.1%) alike. The presence of the vessel did not account for statistically significant differences regarding surgery duration and complications.