PCL footprints are potential predictor of ACL graft size or the femoral footprint of the anterior cruciate ligament changes with aging?

Abstract

Objective: In spite of the advancement to anatomic ACL recon-struction (ACLR), approximation of the native ACL size in pre-op conditions is a challenging task. Therefore, a method was developed for using an intact posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) as an interpreter of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) graft size.

Material and method: Fifty embalmed knees of known gender and age (15 male/10 female) were dissected. The length of ACL and PCL, as well as the size and shape of femoral and tibial footprints of both cruciate ligaments, were measured, and evaluate the correlation. Linear regression models were used to identify the relationship between ACL and PCL measurement.

Result: PCL femoral and tibial footprints were statistically signi-ficant predictors of ACL femoral and tibial footprints. The following equations were developed to calculate ACL femoral and tibial foot-print measurements from an intact PCL measurement: ACL femoral footprint = 67.03 + 0.046*PCL femoral footprint, ACL tibial footprint = 240.23 - 0.77* PCL tibial footprint. A significant difference was observed between the frequency rates of the morphologies of femoral and tibial footprints of the younger and older groups (p < 0.001 for both genders). However, no differences were observed between males and females of the same age group.

Conclusion: Associations be present in between ACL and PCL measurements. The length of ligaments was higher in male than female. There was a strong correlation between height and length of ligaments but no correlation with age.