Augmentation of a patellar tendon repair with an autologous semitendinosus graft
Published online: Jun 27 2009
Hans Van der Bracht, René Verdonk, Bart Stuyts
From Sint-Augustinus GZA Hospitals, Wilrijk, Belgium
Abstract
Patellar tendon ruptures are rare but very invalidating lesions. We describe a case of re-rupture of a sutured patellar tendon. An autologous semitendinosus graft was used for tendon augmentation in the reconstruction procedure. This technique uses an easy-to-harvest graft which has low donor site morbidity. Additionally, the strength of the graft allows early rehabilitation, and no further surgery for hardware removal is necessary. For these reasons we recommend this procedure for acute patellar tendon ruptures with a poor tissue quality or for revision surgery of the patellar tendon.