Return to Sport After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction with a Suture Tape Augmentation in Young Athletes: A Retrospective Case Series

Anterior Cruciate Ligament ( ACL) tears are a common athletic injury that can significantly impair knee stability, biomechanics, and the ability to safely return to sport without surgical reconstruction. Patients with an ACLR experience greater knee specific quality of life and knee function as compared to those who did not receive an ACLR. Despite these benefits, recovery following ACLR is prolonged, with conventional return-to-sport (RTS) timelines typically ranging from 9 to 12 months postoperatively. Suture tape augmentation has been proposed as a means to enhance graft strength and stability during the early postoperative period, which may facilitate a safer and potentially earlier return to sport. A retrospective case series of 62 patients who underwent ACLR with suture tape augmentation including a 39 patient RTS-eligible subgroup were surveyed regarding RTS. All surgeries were performed by a single sports-medicine fellowship trained surgeon at a single academic institution between January 2020 and March 2025. There were 62 patients who received an ACLR with a suture tape augmentation who responded (55% response rate) with an average International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score of 83.97 ± 14.27 compared to an IKDC score of 87.98 ± 10.57 for athletes who RTS. Of the 39 athletes eligible to RTS, 33 (84.2%) did RTS. The average RTS of patients who received a suture tape augmentation was determined to be 7.06 ± 2.3 months. Among the athletes who did RTS, only 9.4% returned at a lower level of competition. Graft rupture rate was 5.1% within the RTS group. ACLR with suture tape augmentation may facilitate patients to return to the same level of competition, but these findings should be considered exploratory given the lack of control group. Additional studies with larger cohort sizes are needed to increase the external validity of our results. • Return to sport outcomes after ACL reconstruction with suture tape augmentation • 84% of athletes returned to sport at an average of 7 months • Functional outcomes and retear rates comparable to published literature