Objective: This study investigated the relationship between range of motion and the histological analysis of the synovium of the knee joint following reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament. Method: Histological, pain and range-of-motion (ROM) evaluations were performed on the knees of 26 patients. The Shapiro-Wilk test, Friedman test and Spearman correlation coefficient were utilized for verifying the existence of significant correlations between the variables, using the SPSS for Windows 12.0 statistical software with a significance level of 5%. Results: Comparing before and after the operation, statistical differences were found in relation to knee extension ROM (p= 0.042), flexion ROM (p= 0.001) and hyperextension (p= 0.001). There were also significant correlations between the subsynovial tissue and the flexion ROM of the operated knees (r= 0.53; p= 0.008), between the subsynovial tissue and the sensation of pain (r= 0.46; p= 0.024), and between the extension ROM after the operation and type I collagen (r= 0.52; p= 0.016). Conclusion: The greater the quantity of type I collagen observed, the thicker was the subsynovial tissue, the greater the reported pain, and the less was the ROM of the operated knees.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.