Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with autografts compared with non-irradiated, non-chemically treated allografts.

PURPOSE: Allograft anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction obviates donor site morbidity and may accelerate postoperative recovery. However, allograft use can lead to increased rates of surgical failure, particularly when chemical processing or irradiation is used. Few studies have rigorously evaluated the comparative outcomes of autografts and fresh-frozen allograft tissue for ACL reconstruction.

METHODS: We performed a PubMed search to identify and systematically evaluate outcomes of autograft and non-chemically treated non-irradiated allograft tissue in ACL reconstruction between 1980 and 2012. We included studies with Level of evidence of I to III, determinate graft treatment, a minimum of 25 patients per treatment arm, a minimum 2-year follow-up, and selected subjective and objective outcome measures.

RESULTS: After the exclusion of 585 citations, we isolated 11 studies for further review. All patients showed improvement in clinical outcome measures and knee stability end points from injury to definitive surgical management. No statistically significant differences were detected between autografts and non-chemically processed non-irradiated allografts in Lysholm scores, International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores, Lachman examinations, pivot-shift testing, KT-1000 measurements, or failure rates.

CONCLUSIONS: Further large-scale, well-designed studies are required to better evaluate the comparative outcomes after fresh-frozen allograft ACL reconstruction. The current study suggests that the results after autograft ACL reconstruction are comparable to those using non-chemically processed nonirradiated allograft tissue.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Systematic review of Level I to III studies.