Between March 1992 and December 1995 at St. Paul's, Holy Family, St. Vincent and Eui Jung Bu St. Mary Hospitals Catholic University, two hundred and eighty patients underwent arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) reconstruction using central on...
Between March 1992 and December 1995 at St. Paul's, Holy Family, St. Vincent and Eui Jung Bu St. Mary Hospitals Catholic University, two hundred and eighty patients underwent arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) reconstruction using central one-third bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Nine of these patients had limitation of motion(LOM) defined as a knee flexion contracture greater than 10o or less than 125o of passive knee flexion. This study analyzes the causes of LOM after ACL reconstruction as well as the results after passive manipulation or arthroscopic adhesiolysis under anesthesia for LOM. The results are as follows: 1. Out of nine patients, initially three had isolated ACL injuries and six had combined injuries. Seven of nine cases were perfomed by ACL reconstruction within four weeks and two were performed after four weeks following injury. 2. Treatment for LOM after ACL reconstruction was done after 5.5 months on average. 3. Arthroscopic adhesiolysis was done in 5 cases. There were fibrous adhesions at suprapatellar pouch and femoral intercondylar notch in all cases, respectively, infrapatellar fat pad in 3 cases and medial para patellar gutter in 2 cases. Two patients had a fibrous nodule, "cyclops" lesion, which formed anterior to the ACL graft. 4. Range of motion and Lysholm knee score were much improved following passive manipulation or arthroscopic adhesiolysis under anesthesia for LOM.