Acute surgical management of traumatic knee dislocations--Average follow-up of 10 years.

BACKGROUND

Traumatic knee dislocations have been managed historically by means of either delayed reconstruction or non-operative methods. More recently, there has been a trend towards early reconstruction. There is no clear consensus in the literature as to how such patients should be managed and in what time frame.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to establish the long-term outcome of patients who underwent acute surgical management of their traumatic knee dislocation.

METHODS

Thirty-six patients with traumatic knee dislocations were treated by multi-ligament reconstruction. All surgical interventions occurred within 21 days of presentation. The collateral ligament complexes were primarily repaired where possible and reconstructions were performed with either autograft, allograft or the ligament augmentation and reconstruction system (LARS) synthetic graft.

RESULTS

The mean time to surgery was 12 days (1 to 21) with a mean follow-up of 10.1 years (7 to 19). The International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) assessment demonstrates that 56% of patients went on to have "nearly normal" knee function and the average Tegner-Lysholm score of 80 (57 to 91), is consistent with good function. The Knee Outcome score (KOS) was 84% for Activities of Daily Living and 74% for Sports.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates a high level of overall knee function following the acute surgical reconstruction of traumatic knee dislocations.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 2B: Cohort Study with Outcome Measures.