Augmentation of a patellar tendon repair with an autologous semitendinosus graft

Abstract

Patellar tendon ruptures are rare but very invalidating lesions. We describe a case of re-rupture of a sutured patellar tendon. An autologous semitendinosus graft was used for tendon augmentation in the reconstruction procedure. This technique uses an easy-to-harvest graft which has low donor site morbidity. Additionally, the strength of the graft allows early rehabilitation, and no further surgery for hardware removal is necessary. For these reasons we recommend this procedure for acute patellar tendon ruptures with a poor tissue quality or for revision surgery of the patellar tendon.