Summary of Key Evidence:
1. Study design—Prospective Comparative Case Series
2. Sample—A group of 41 patients who underwent soft-tissue allograft reconstruction averaging 29.7 years of age and a group of 118 patients who underwent autograft bone-patellar tendon-bone reconstruction averaging 25.4 years of age.
3. Procedure— Both the allograft and the autograft ACL reconstructions were performed arthroscopically by …show more content…
Strengths: Patients that did not qualify were removed from the study.
External Validity:
Threats: There were more autograft patients than allograft patients, which could potentially increase the number of patients that complained of pain. Autograft patients were younger than allograft patients. Some of the patients had other knee pathologies.
Strengths: The subjective and objective scales were pretty straightforward and easy to understand. All patients followed the same rehabilitation making the outcomes fair.
Statistical Validity:
Threats: Subjective measures were obtained on different pain scales, which could throw off the validity because not all the patients have the same pain tolerance. The KT-1000 took measurements of the average of 3 attempts, which depending on the ranges the values vary.
Strength: Ligamentous strength was measured using special tests including: medial joint opening, lateral joint opening, anterior drawer, Lachman’s test and pivot joint test, which a proper measurement can be obtained in comparison to the non-afffect side. The P values were properly stated for each dependent variable.
Level of Evidence: