Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticleOsseous Landmarks of the Femoral Attachment of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament: An Anatomic Study
Section snippets
Histologic Study of the of the ACL in Human Fetuses
After approval of our institutional review board, seven aborted human fetuses (4 female and 3 male), ranging from 19 to 22 weeks’ gestation, were used in this study. The knees were dissected and the lateral femoral condyle was trimmed down to the ACL attachment. Standard histology preparation was performed, followed by 5-μm thick coronal sections to allow for standard hematoxylin–eosin staining. Observation was performed by a single observer (M.F.). The use of coronal sections allows the
Results
As shown below, in all sections of the study we found two distinct ridges that defined the femoral ACL origin, which we termed the “lateral intercondylar ridge” and the “lateral bifurcate ridge.”
Discussion
This study describes the osseous anatomy of the ACL femoral attachment both qualitatively and quantitatively. The data of this study contribute to the understanding of the ACL osseous anatomy and may assist surgeons in performing ACL surgery in a more anatomic fashion.
Several studies have focused on the anatomy of the ACL.11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 In general, the majority of the authors agreed that the ACL contains two functional bundles, the AM and PL bundles.11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20
Conclusions
Our study revealed that the ACL femoral attachment has a unique osseous topography with two osseous ridges: the lateral intercondylar ridge and the lateral bifurcate ridge.
Acknowledgment
We thank Drs. William Clancy and Daniel Cooperman for their helpful discussion in preparation of the manuscript, and Mr. Mark Klingler for his artistic drawing of figure 7.
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The authors report no conflict of interest.