Functional outcome of transtibial vs transportal drilling techniques in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Background: It is a randomized prospective clinical study to determine the functional outcome of trans-tibial and anteromedial portal techniques in ACL reconstruction. The contribution of the present study to the literature would be to confirm or refute an actual clinical advantage of the technically difficult anteromedial portal technique over the easier, more popular and well established trans-tibial technique. Materials and Methods: A minimum of 60 patients with ACL tears and undergoing arthroscopic ACL reconstructive surgery from a period within May 2013 to December 2014 were studied by using a standard Proforma and clinical evaluation pre and post op by an independent observer. A detailed clinical examination was done. Patients were interviewed with respect to subjective symptoms like joint stability, pain, impact on their professional life. Conclusion: After analyzing the results of our study it was concluded 1. Arthroscopic ACL Reconstruction using transtibial and transportal techniques of femoral tunneling are both effective modalities of treatment in patients with ACL deficient knees 2. The transportal technique gives superior results in terms of knee IKDC, Lysholm and Pain on VAS scores. 3. The transportal technique has a better functional outcome than the transtibial technique.