Abstract
Objectives:
To identify patients with a diagnosis of acute and complete ACL rupture that healed spontaneously, and to determine whether such healing is related to age, sex, type of rupture, resting time, and trauma mechanisms.
Materials and Methods:
30 patients with complete acute ACL rupture were evaluated by clinical diagnosis and Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI). Both Lysholm test and IKDC 2000 were used for subjective evaluation.
Results:
All patients improved from the first to the second consult, with the following results: Lachman (p <0.0406), pivot shift (p = 0.071), and anterior drawer (p <0.001). During the follow-up MRI, all patients showed signs of healing in ACL. With an average follow-up of 12 months for men (95% CI 6-17) and 13 months for women (95% CI 31 max.), a nearly complete clinical recovery could be inferred, as well as healing occurring independently of variables such as age, sex, or specific treatment (p = 0.795 and p = 0.841).
Discussion:
Despite this study size limitation, the objectives were achieved. There would be spontaneous ACL healing associated with a 3-month post-injury resting time, but it is unrelated to age, sex, specific physiotherapy treatments, or the use of immobilizers. Level of evidence: level of evidence IV