抄録
We investigated the tendon length of the semitendinosus, the relationship between its length and height, femoral length and the preoperative hamstring strength of the injured side in 34 patients (15 males and 19 females) with unilateral ACL insufficiency. They underwent reconstructive surgery of the multistranded medial hamstring tendon. We also estimated the strand numbers of the individual tendon graft based on their tendon length. In the operation, we measured the harvested semitendinosus tendon length that could be used for the graft composition. The average length (range) in males and females was 24.8 (18.0-29.1) and 22.6 (18.0-28.2) cm, respectively. The correlation between their length and height was statistically significant in both genders. Correlation in the length between the tendon and femur was seen in males, but not in females. That between the length and hamstring strength was not significant. Although there was a tendency for greater possibility to create the quadrupled tendon graft with the increase in height, we could not accurately estimate the strand numbers because of considerable standard errors. Our data therefore showed that the precise tendon length of the semitendinosus and the accurate graft strand number cannot be estimated preoperatively, due to wide individual variation in spite of the correlation between the tendon length and height.
