All-Inside Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction as a Salvage for Small or Attenuated Hamstring Grafts

Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears represent one of the most common sports-related injuries in the young population. There are multiple studies showing higher failure rates in the younger population with an allograft supporting the routine use of an autograft. In addition, higher failure rates have been shown with grafts narrower than 8 mm in diameter. This places the surgeon in an operative dilemma determining what to do with a narrow graft or an attenuated hamstring during harvest. All-inside ACL reconstruction is a promising technique for reliably creating sufficiently wide grafts without the need for allograft augmentation. The purpose of this Technical Note is to detail a graft preparation using the all-inside technique as a bailout during hamstring autograft ACL when the graft is narrow or one of the tendons is attenuated during harvest.