Effect of Insertion of a Single Interference Screw on the Mechanical Properties of Porcine Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Grafts

The objective of this study was to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft-tissue grafts following a single interference screw insertion of 4 different commercially available bioabsorbable interference screws.

Twenty-four bovine proximal tibiae (12 matched pairs) were prepared and sagittally split to make 48 bone samples for testing. Tibiae were prepared for a 9 mm porcine tendon graft and were instrumented with 1 of 4 commercially available 10 x 35 mm composite screws, each with a different thread design. The samples were tensile loaded to failure at 200 mm/min and values for yield load, maximum load, and stiffness were recorded to quantify any differences on the function of the grafts.

No graft showed macroscopic evidence of laceration following screw insertion and there were no statistically significant differences for yield load (P = .41), maximum load (P = .35), or stiffness (P = .68) among the different screw types.

There is no significant difference in the mechanical properties of an anterior cruciate ligament graft following insertion of the 4 bioabsorbable screws tested in this study, in terms of yield load, stiffness, or failure load.