The use of the LARS artificial ligament to augment a short or undersized ACL hamstrings tendon graft

The aim of this study is to evaluate the midterm results of using Ligament Advanced Reinforcement System (LARS) artificial ligament for augmentation of the short (<15 cm length) and small-sized (3-4 mm) diameter for the gracilis and (4-5 mm) for the semitendinosus harvested hamstring tendons in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, and to assess the knee stability, patient satisfaction and early- and midterm complications following surgery. A total of 112 patients were included in this study and were operated with arthroscopic ACL reconstruction using (augmented hamstring tendon graft with EARS) between January 2004 and December 2006. Assessment before and after the surgery include the history, clinical examination, modified international knee documentation committee score (IKDC), KT1000 measurements for clinical knee stability and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) for patient satisfaction. Clinical results measured by IKDC evaluation, KT1000 and Lysholm scores showed significant postoperative values compared with the preoperative ones. Our findings suggest that at the end of a 5-year follow-up, augmented hamstring tendon graft with EARS artificial ligament is a useful, safe and satisfactory treatment option for ACL reconstruction in deficient knees with short- and small-sized harvested hamstring tendons, especially when an early return to high levels of sport activity is needed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.