Graft tendon slippage with metallic and bioabsorbable interference screws under cyclic load: a biomechanical study in a porcine model

Abstract

Introduction: The rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common type of knee injury.Reconstructive surgery is the 'gold standard' treatment. During the immediate post-operative period, the fixation of the graft is entirely dependent on the ability of the grafted implant to be secured inside the bone tunnel under the cyclical loads associated with daily tasks. Poor fixation can lead to graft slippage, thus impairing the healing and integration of the graft. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical performance of tendon graft fixation devices with metallic and bioabsorbable interference screws. Methods: Twenty ACL reconstructions were carried out in porcine tibias using deep flexor tendons to fix 9 × 20 mm metallic (n=10) and PLLA 70/30 bioabsorbable screws (n=10). To verify the ability of a construct to resist immediate postoperative (PO) rehabilitation protocols for immediate load bearing, a cyclic loading test was applied with 50-250 N of tensile force at 1 Hz for 1000 cycles, and the displacement was measured at 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 load cycles to quantify the slippage of the graft during the test. After the cyclic loading test, a singlecycle load-to-failure test was applied. Results: The slippage of the graft using metallic screws did not differ (P = 0.616) from that observed when using bioabsorbable screws. Conclusion: The results obtained in this experiment indicate that metallic screws may promote a similar amount of graft slippage during low cyclic loading as bioabsorbable screws. Additionally, there was no difference in the biomechanical performance of these two types of screws during high failure loads.

A atuação do laboratório de Engenharia Biomecânica (LEBm/HU-UFSC) na avaliação pré-clínica de tecnologias de implantes cirúrgicos no âmbito do complexo industrial da saúde

“…A comparação biomecânica foi realizada com modelo animal (joelhos de suínos Landrace) por meio de ensaios cíclicos em uma freqüência de 1,2Hz que simula a frequência da marcha humana, e carregamentos de 50N a 250N simulando as forças medidas no LCA (Fig. 3) (Moré et al, 2015).…”