Association between intercondylar notch narrowing and bilateral anterior cruciate ligament injuries in athletes

Abstract

The intercondylar notch was significantly narrower in subjects with bilateral ACL injuries than in healthy subjects. NWI measurement using coronal MRI is useful for judging intercondylar notch narrowing. The risk for ACL injuries is very high when NWI is ≤0.25. Preventive measures for the unaffected knee are required for patients with a narrow intercondylar notch.

An Evaluation of the Association Between Radiographic Intercondylar Notch Narrowing and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Men: The Notch Angle Is a Better Parameter Than Notch Width

“…12,15,19 The absolute values of notch width and notch width index found in our investigation were similar to those in the previous literature on ACL-injured patients (Table 3). 12,[18][19][20]25,26 However, the control patients in this study had notch width index values similar to those of injured patients in previous studies (i.e., close to 0.25). 26 The principal hypothesis of this study was that ACL injuries would be …”

“…12,[18][19][20]25,26 However, the control patients in this study had notch width index values similar to those of injured patients in previous studies (i.e., close to 0.25). 26 The principal hypothesis of this study was that ACL injuries would be …”

Notch morphology is a risk factor for ACL injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The majority of the studies used MRI7–17 19–21 23 24 or radiography7 18 21–23 25–29 for measurement of bone morphology parameters. Additionally, Vrooijink et al 12 compared their measurements performed by MRI or intraoperatively, which did not find any correlation.…”

“…In addition, one study performed a case-series of ACL-reconstructed and ACL-deficient patients 25. Overall, the studies provided a moderate description of their inclusion and exclusion criteria: 11 studies included isolated unilateral ACL tears,7 9 11 13 16 20–26 7 studies included ACL reconstruction/surgery patients,8 10 12 15 19 27 28 one study explored ACL-deficient knees,29 one study investigated the contralateral knee of ACL-injured patients17 and one study also included bilateral ACL tears 23. Nonetheless, 12 of 23 studies (52%)7–10 12 13 15–17 20 23 25 did not report how did they determined the status of ACL.…”

Intercondylar notch dimensions and graft failure after single- and double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

“…The literature is conflicting as to the notch anatomy and its relationship between ACL reconstruction graft failure, with some studies reporting a relationship between a "narrow" intercondylar notch and ACL rupture [1,11,19,44], while others have not shown such a correlation [13,32].…”