Evaluating knee function post-ACL reconstruction: conventional versus all-inside technique using Lysholm score

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a common surgical intervention. The aim of this paper was to make a comparison in terms of subjective symptoms that occur in a specific Lysholm scoring scale-in-progress before the operative period, 3 and 8 months after surgical treatment with two surgical methods. Materials and Methods: Eighty patients underwent primary ACL reconstruction at the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology in the City General Hospital “8th September” in Skopje in a period of two years. The first group (40 subjects) constituted the control group (CG), surgically treated with a standard method using a graft from m. semitendinosus and m. gracilis. The second group (40 subjects) was the study group (SG) surgically treated with the ALL-INSIDE method using a m. semitendinosus graft. In all subjects preoperatively, at 3 and 8 months after surgical treatment, Lysholm scale was completed representing a designed questionnaire for evaluation of subjective symptoms. Results: Preoperatively, most patients from SG had a score lower than 65 to 55 % (22), while in CG between 65 and 83 – 50% (20). After 3 months of surgical treatment, SG patients had averagely a higher score than CG patients (88.60 ± 11.8 vs. 85.75 ± 17.8), but without statistical significance. Among SG and CG patients, 8 months after surgery (p = 0.043), SG patients had a significantly higher mean score than CG patients (97.62 ± 5.3 vs. 92.40 ± 15.1). Lysholm scale analysed qualitatively 8 months after surgical treatment showed no significant difference between them, i.e., the tested difference in the distribution of patients with a score of less than 65, from 65 to 83, from 84 to 90 and more than 90, and depending on the type of the surgical method was statistically insignificant (p = 0.123). Conclusion: The type of surgical technique used had no significant influence on the subjective complaints of patients after 3 months of surgical treatment. But after 8 months, a better functional result was obtained in SG patients