Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction With Amnion Biological Augmentation

Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures are common and unfortunate injuries for many athletes. The standard therapy for ACL rupture is ACL reconstruction with either autograft, harvested from hamstring or patellar tendon, or allograft tendon from a tissue donor. Advances in tissue engineering have produced interventions to augment the healing process and may have applications when it comes to ACL reconstruction. In this Technical Note and accompanying video, we describe a simple technique to implant an amnion matrix graft with a tendon graft during ACL reconstruction. This procedure uses the proposed anti-inflammatory, scaffolding, and stem cell–producing effects of the amniotic membrane to biologically augment the healing process of an ACL reconstruction.