Morphological changes in tibial tunnels after anatomic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with hamstring tendon graft

Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics

Table 1 Cross-sectional area and enlargement rate in the tibial tunnels

	Cross-sectional area (mm²)			Enlargement rate (%) [(c-b)/b × 100]	P (a vs. b)	P (a vs. c)	P (b vs. c)
	Drill size intra-op. ^a	3 weeks post-op. ^b	1 year post-op. ^c	Enlargement rate (%) [(c-b)/b × 100]	P (a vs. b)	P (a vs. c)	P (b vs. c)
Anterior tunnels
At the aperture	37.4 ± 2.4	37.7 ± 6.8	40.2 ± 11.4	6.1 ± 24.0	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
5 mm from the aperture	37.4 ± 2.4	37.6 ± 7.0	32.6 ± 7.2	- 12.5 ± 16.6	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
10 mm from the aperture	37.4 ± 2.4	37.9 ± 6.1	22.9 ± 8.7	- 38.5 ± 23.4	n.s.	< 0.001 ^d	< 0.001 ^d
Posterior tunnel
At the aperture	20.2 ± 2.8	20.5 ± 4.1	28.9 ± 8.0	40.4 ± 23.9	n.s.	0.0013 ^d	0.0015 ^d
5 mm from the aperture	20.2 ± 2.8	20.3 ± 4.6	24.2 ± 7.0	20.0 ± 25.7	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
10 mm from the aperture	20.2 ± 2.8	20.4 ± 3.9	18.2 ± 6.2	- 9.9 ± 28.9	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.

Mean ± standard deviation
Intra-op. intraoperatively, post-op. postoperatively
^d statistically significant difference with the Friedman test for one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) by ranks and the Steel-Dwass test for post-hoc multiple comparison (P < 0.05)