Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery: Creating a Permissive Healing Phenotype in Military Personnel and Civilians for Faster Recovery
Morris, Jodie, McEwen, Peter, Letson, Hayley, and Dobson, Geoffrey (2022) Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery: Creating a Permissive Healing Phenotype in Military Personnel and Civilians for Faster Recovery. Military Medicine, 187 (11-12). pp. 1310-1317.
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Abstract
Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture in military personnel and civilians can be a devastating injury. A service member is 10 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than their civilian counterparts, and despite successful surgical stabilization, 4%-35% will develop arthrofibrosis, over 50% will not return to full active duty, and up to 50% will develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) within 15 years. Equally concerning, woman are 2 to 8 times more likely to experience ACL injuries than men, which represents a major knowledge gap.
Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed in December 2021 using structured search terms related to prevalence, risk factors, disease progression, and treatment of ACL injury and reconstruction. The literature search was conducted independently by two researchers using PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases, with inclusion of articles with military, civilian, and sex relevance, and exclusion of most papers with a publication date greater than 10 years. The resources used for the review reflect the most current data, knowledge, and recommendations associated with research and clinical findings from reliable international sources.
Results: Currently, there is no effective system-based drug therapy that creates a “permissive environment” to reduce synovial and cartilage stress after ACL injury and reconstruction and prevent secondary complications. We argue that progress in this area has been hampered by researchers and clinicians failing to recognize that (1) an ACL injury is a system’s failure that affects the whole joint, (2) the early molecular events define and perpetuate different injury phenotypes, (3) male and female responses may be different and have a molecular basis, (4) the female phenotype continues to be under-represented in basic and clinical research, and (5) the variable outcomes may be perpetuated by the trauma of surgery itself. The early molecular events after ACL injury are characterized by an overexpression of joint inflammation, immune dysfunction, and trauma-induced synovial stress. We are developing an upstream adenosine, lidocaine, and magnesium therapy to blunt these early molecular events and expedite healing with less arthrofibrosis and early PTOA complications.
Conclusions: ACL injuries continue to be a major concern among military personnel and civilians and represent a significant loss in command readiness and quality of life. The lack of predictability in outcomes after ACL repair or reconstruction underscores the need for new joint protection therapies. The male–female disparity requires urgent investigation.
Item ID: | 73441 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 1930-613X |
Copyright Information: | © The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2022. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Funders: | U.S. Army Medical Command |
Projects and Grants: | Log No. OR190008 and Award No. W81XWH-20-1-0931 |
Date Deposited: | 21 Sep 2022 01:54 |
FoR Codes: | 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3202 Clinical sciences > 320216 Orthopaedics @ 80% 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3202 Clinical sciences > 320226 Surgery @ 20% |
SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200105 Treatment of human diseases and conditions @ 100% |
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