Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Sep 18, 2022; 13(9): 812-824
Published online Sep 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i9.812
Revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: Return to sports at a minimum 5-year follow-up
Ezequiel Ortiz, Juan Pablo Zicaro, Ignacio Garcia Mansilla, Carlos Yacuzzi, Matias Costa-Paz
Ezequiel Ortiz, Juan Pablo Zicaro, Ignacio Garcia Mansilla, Carlos Yacuzzi, Matias Costa-Paz, Knee Division, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma 1181, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Author contributions: Ortiz E and Zicaro JP designed the research study; Ortiz E performed the research; Yacuzzi C and Costa Paz M contributed new reagents; Garcia Mansilla I contributed with analytic tools; Ortiz E and Zicaro JP analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, No. #3213.
Informed consent statement: Patients were required to give informed consent to the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ignacio Garcia Mansilla, MD, Surgeon, Knee Division, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Peron 4190, Ciudad Autónoma 1181, Buenos Aires, Argentina. ignacio.garciamansilla@hospitalitaliano.org.ar
Received: December 28, 2021
Peer-review started: January 4, 2022
First decision: February 21, 2022
Revised: May 4, 2022
Accepted: August 10, 2022
Article in press: August 10, 2022
Published online: September 18, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Between 43% and 75% of patients who undergo primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery return to sport activity. However, after a revision ACL reconstruction (ACLR) rate of return to sport are variable. Few publications report return to sports incidence between 56% to 100% after revision ACLR. Five-year minimum follow-up after revision ACLR is a good mid/long-term period evaluation to report return to sport of a case series patients.

Research motivation

Return to sports is a frequent question from patients during the first consultation. We believe this research could help other knee surgeons answer these types of questions. Motivation and expectation must be asked by surgeons during the consultation so as to give the patient a more detailed and realistic response to that question.

Research objectives

The objective was to report functional clinical outcomes and return to sport at a mid/long-term period after revision ACLR.

Research methods

A retrospective and observational study was performed to describe return to sport of an amateur case series of patients. The entire cohort was asked about motivation, expectation, intensity, frequency and level of return to sport after a 5-year follow-up after revision ACLR.

Research results

Thirty-nine percent of the cohort returned at the same level compared to the pre-injury period. Sixty-one percent returned at a lower level. Sixty-three percent categorized the sport as very important and 37.0% as important. One patient (2.4%) failed with a recurrent torn ACL.

Research conclusions

Almost 40.0% of patients returned to their pre-injury sport level and 60.0% to a lower level after 5 years of follow-up after revision ACLR.

Research perspectives

The direction of future research must be to compare return to sport of professional elite patients against amateur patients.