[Results on treatment of anterior cruciate ligament rupture of immature and adolescents]

Abstract

Between 01.01.1994 and 31.12.2000 we have operated 45 patients in our clinic with open growth plates. Cruciate ligament injuries are seldom found by children with open growth plates.Nevertheless, if the injury is left untreated it is liable to injure the meniscoid and the cartilage severely and may even lead to a loosening of the tertiary stabilizers. Therefore we do refixation of anterior cruciate ligament for tibial bony rupture and Refixation in Marschall technique or a replacement for the anterior cruciate ligament using Hamstring ligaments and fixated them by using the transfix technique.Up till now, none of the patients showed any signs of ill-functioning growth plates. Though it may be necessary to point out that the patients had not fully grown out by the time the subsequent check ups were held. The knees we revised were all stable and after relating our results to the IKDC-Score we found that our treatment reflected a good to very good result (Group A and B). Results of Marschall-Technique are very poor, results after bony refixations are good, result of our prospective study encourage us to recommend the surrogate of the anterior cruciate ligament by using the transfix technique in cases where the growth plates are still open. Therefore we can recommend reconstruction on transfix technique and refixation of bony ruptures.