Resumen de Early point of significantly higher lesions in inssufficient anterior cruciate ligament knees

Mariano López Franco, O. López Franco, M.A. Murciano Antón, Enrique Gómez Barrena

• An experimental study was designed to determine the impact of the instability in the rabbit knee.

  Ten mature white New Zealand male rabbits were studied. Anterior cruciate ligament-transection of the right knee joint was performed. Animals were sacrificed at 4 weeks (group 1: five animals) and 12 weeks (group 2: five animals) after the surgery.

  Left knee joints were used as controls. Gross injuries in articular cartilage and in menisci were scored.

  Forty percent of the knees from the group 1 showed fibrillation. In the group 2, all the knees were damaged and 2/5 showed full-thickness erosion. Tears were observed in 2 internal menisci from the group 1 and in 2 external menisci and 5/5 internal menisci from the group 2.

  The earliest point of significantly higher incidence of knee damage was 3 months post injury. Therefore, when an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is indicated it should carry out as soon as possible.