Abstract
The aim of the present study is to examine the readmission rate within 90 days of
a cohort of patients, who underwent an arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
reconstruction with a lateral extraarticular tenodesis, from a single highly specialized
sports traumatology department. From our institutional database, we identified 2,559
patients (78.5% males and 21.5% females, with a mean age at surgery of 30.9 ± 11.5
years) who underwent primary ACL reconstruction with the same “over-the-top” technique
plus lateral extraarticular tenodesis (LET) from January 2010 to December 2017. From
this count, we extracted all patients who were readmitted within 90 days and focused
on causes of readmission and reoperation rate. Moreover, a multivariate logistic regression
was performed to identify possible variables, such as gender, age, and concomitant
meniscus surgery, which could predict the risk of early readmission. From the aforementioned
cohort, 58 patients (2.27%) were readmitted within 90 days from surgery after a mean
time of 31 ± 23 days. The most common cause of readmission was fever and knee swelling
(0.78%), followed by superficial infection (0.63%), deep infection (0.55%), and joint
stiffness (0.23%). The patients' age and meniscal lesions requiring concomitant arthroscopic
treatment were found to be correlated to an increased risk of early readmission. Superficial
infections were more common in female patients (odds ratio [OR] = 3.01), whereas the
meniscal treatment was also a significant risk factor specifically for deep infections
(OR = 3.56). In conclusion, this technique of arthroscopic ACL reconstruction with
LET showed a low readmission rate within 90 days from surgery. However, patients and
physicians should be aware of the risk of serious complications, such as deep and
superficial infections, mostly in female patients and in cases of concurrent meniscal
treatments. This is a Level IV, retrospective case series study.
Keywords
anterior cruciate ligament - ACL - anterolateral ligament - lateral extraarticular
tenodesis - epidemiology - complications - readmission rate - infection
