The aim of this study was to know what were the preferences of the Spanish surgeons about different aspects of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.
In February 2009, 910 surveys regarding some technical aspects of ACL reconstruction was mailed to surgeons who perform this kind of surgery in Spain. The survey had 8 questions: number of ACL reconstructions per year, two clinical cases, what kind of graft was preferred, the use of simple or double bundle reconstruction, the time and the amount of tension to apply to the hamstrings during ACL reconstruction and finally, some aspects about the creation of the femoral tunnel.
A total of 102 responses were received. Most of them (66%) had between 5-20 years of experience. A 60.3%of them performed between 10鈥?0 procedures per year. The first choice graft in both clinical cases was autologous hamstring tendons (62%and 64%). The transtibial technique (71.8%) and the single bundle technique (79.1%) were preferred.
The management of the ACL injuries remains unclear. Like in other countries with available ACL registries, autologous hamstrings have increased their use for ACL reconstruction. However, there is not consensus in some aspects of the technique.
The preferred technique for ACL reconstruction in this group was the transtibial technique with single bundle and using autologous hamstring tendons.