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· DOS Abstracts
Quadriceps tendon graft harvest has less donor site
morbidity than semitendinosus/gracilis graft har-
vest after ACL-reconstruction.
Torsten Grønbech Nielsen, Lene Miller, Ole Gade Sørensen, Bjarne Mygind-Klav-
sen, Peter Faunø, Lind Martin
Div. Sports Trauma, Orthopedic Dept, Aarhus University Hospital
Background:
It is well known that graft harvest at Anterior Cruciate ligament
(ACL) -reconstruction leads to donor site morbidity. Typical donor site symp-
toms are muscle pain (MP), muscle weakness (MW), muscle cramp (MC) and
muscle strain sensation (MS). Quadriceps Tendon (QTB) graft harvest for ACL-
reconstruction is increasingly used. Donor site morbidity after QTB graft har-
vest has not been described in details.
Purpose / Aim of Study:
The purpose of this present study is to compare
the donor site morbidity of two groups of patients who underwent ACL-re-
construction with a graft from either semitendinosus/gracilis (STG) or QTB. We
hypothesized less donor site morbidity with QTB graft harvest compared to STG
graft harvest.
Materials and Methods:
Ninety-nine patients were included in the present
study. STG grafts were used in 49 patients and QTB grafts were used in 50
patients. The patients completed a questionnaire 12 month after surgery and
included questions concerning: MP, MW, MC and MS from the donor muscle
group.
Findings / Results:
Twenty-five patients (52%) in the STG- group have do-
nor-site problems, compared to 14 patients (30%) in the QTB-group (p<0.05).
The distribution of donor site morbidity for STG is (MP, MW, MC, MS) 13, 20,
16 and 17 patients and for QTB it is 8, 12, 6 and 2 patients respectively. QTB
harvest result in less MW and MS than STG harvest. Twenty-three (92%) pa-
tients of the STG-patients experience the donor morbidity symptoms in rela-
tion to Sport compared to 9 (64%) in the QTB-group. Four patients in the STG
categorize their donor site morbidity as severe, compared to 2 patients in the
QTB- group.
Conclusions:
The findings in the present study demonstrate that STG graft
harvesting leads to more donor site morbidity than the QTB graft. In the STG-
group MW and MS are the biggest problems compared to the QTB-group.
No conflicts of interest reported
148.