Allograft ligament transplantation in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction patients with meniscal tears.

BACKGROUND: It currently remains unclear whether the meniscal repair clinical results were affected by the graft used in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This retrospective study designed to evaluate the difference in clinical outcomes of meniscal repair using autograft and allograft for the ACL reconstruction.

METHODS: The injury of the ACL and meniscus was evaluated with MRI and treated simultaneously. One hundred and eighty-nine cases were initially fulfilled the study criteria, and had the surgery in the period June 2007 and July 2010. Thirty-four patients were lost to follow-up. Seventy-five patients underwent meniscus repair with autograft reconstruction of the ACL (autograft group) and 80 patients underwent meniscus repair with allograft reconstruction of the ACL (allograft group).

RESULTS: The meniscus healing rate based on the clinical examination of Barrett's criteria was 81.3 % (61/75) in the autograft group and 80.0 % (64/80) in the allograft (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the Lysholm scores in the allograft group compared to the allograft group (89.1 ± 10.6 versus 88.7 ± 11.2, P > 0.05). The values of immunoglobulin's and complements (IgG, IgA, IgM, C3 and C4) were not significantly different between the two groups (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The data support our assumption that patients undergoing meniscal repair associated with ACL reconstruction with allograft had good clinical outcomes. Although allograft implantation induces an immunological response on a subclinical level, there were no signs of allograft affecting the nature of meniscus healing.