Single femoral tunnel for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with bone-patellar tendon-bone graft and lemaire’s extra-articular tenodesis as a good alternative for combined anterior cruciate ligament and anterolateral ligament revision surgeries

Abstract

Objective: The literature has shown a significant decrease in failure rates when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction was associated with an extra-articular reinforcement technique such as the anterolateral ligament (ALL) or the iliotibial band tenodesis (ITBT) using the modified Lemaire technique. As much as there is a progressive decrease in the failure rates of ACL reconstructions when the ALL reconstruction technique is associated, there are still and will be cases that will result in graft rupture. These cases will require more alternatives for revision, which are always challenging for the surgeon, where the lateral approaches represent complicating factors, especially because of the distortion of the lateral anatomy (by the previous approach for ALL reconstruction), previous reconstruction tunnels, and the presence of fixation materials. We present here a safe technique that offers great stability to the fixation of the graft and is easy to perform, using a single tunnel for the passage of the ACL and ITBT grafts, allowing a single fixation for both. In this way, we performed a lower-cost surgery, with a lower risk of lateral condyle fracture and tunnel confluence. This technique is indicated to be used in cases of revision after failure of combined ACL reconstruction with ALL.