Authors
Abstract
Background: The knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is one of the common damages among athletes. To compensate for ACL deficiency, ligament reconstruction is done to recreate the function of ACL. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of single bundle and double bundle ACL reconstruction on the compression stresses of menisci. Methods: We simulated 4 cases with geometrical modeling: intact knee sectioned ACL, single and double bundle ACL reconstruction. We then built a three dimensional finite element geometrical model of knee from MRI images of normal knee. First, the bone and soft tissue points cloud models and then the geometrical models were built. The bones were modeled as rigid bodies, articular cartilage, menisci as linear elastic and ligaments as nonlinear springs. The loading condition was application of a 50 N anterior load to tibia. Results: The maximum compression stress was similar to intact knee and was lower than two reconstruction cases. Distribution of compression stress wasn’t similar to intact knee but in reconstruction cases, it was similar. The contact areas in intact knee were higher in lateral section, while in reconstructed knees were higher in medial section of the knee. Conclusions: ACL removal changes the distribution of compression stress of menisci in comparison with intact knee, single bundle and double bundle reconstruction. Furthermore evaluating contact areas in these four cases showed that removing the ACL may lead to decrease in the contact area but reconstruction may compensate for this.
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