Evaluation of a novel lower radiation computed tomography protocol for assessment of tunnel position post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

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Author(s)
Vasudeva, Varun
Key, Stephen
Phillips, Alfred
Kahane, Steve
Stevens, Joseph
Wall, Chris
Gallie, Price
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
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BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a common orthopaedic procedure. We developed a novel, low dose computed tomography (LDCT) protocol to assess tunnel position post-operatively. The effective radiation dose of this protocol is < 0.5millisieverts (mSv), which is significantly less than the 2 mSv dose for a conventional CT protocol. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the LDCT protocol for determining tunnel position. METHODS: Twenty-six patients who underwent primary ACL reconstruction were included in the study. A LDCT scan was performed 6 weeks post-operatively. Femoral and tibial ...
View more >BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a common orthopaedic procedure. We developed a novel, low dose computed tomography (LDCT) protocol to assess tunnel position post-operatively. The effective radiation dose of this protocol is < 0.5millisieverts (mSv), which is significantly less than the 2 mSv dose for a conventional CT protocol. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the LDCT protocol for determining tunnel position. METHODS: Twenty-six patients who underwent primary ACL reconstruction were included in the study. A LDCT scan was performed 6 weeks post-operatively. Femoral and tibial tunnel positions were measured on three dimensional (3D) reconstructions using previously validated techniques. Measurements were performed independently by three observers at two time points, 4 weeks apart. RESULTS: There was excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability for all measurements using the images obtained from the LDCT protocol. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) values were > 0.9 for all measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The LDCT protocol described in this study accurately demonstrates femoral and tibial tunnels post ACL reconstruction, while exposing the patient to a quarter of the radiation dose of a conventional CT. This protocol could be used by orthopaedic surgeons for routine post-operative imaging, in place of plain film radiographs.
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View more >BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a common orthopaedic procedure. We developed a novel, low dose computed tomography (LDCT) protocol to assess tunnel position post-operatively. The effective radiation dose of this protocol is < 0.5millisieverts (mSv), which is significantly less than the 2 mSv dose for a conventional CT protocol. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the LDCT protocol for determining tunnel position. METHODS: Twenty-six patients who underwent primary ACL reconstruction were included in the study. A LDCT scan was performed 6 weeks post-operatively. Femoral and tibial tunnel positions were measured on three dimensional (3D) reconstructions using previously validated techniques. Measurements were performed independently by three observers at two time points, 4 weeks apart. RESULTS: There was excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability for all measurements using the images obtained from the LDCT protocol. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) values were > 0.9 for all measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The LDCT protocol described in this study accurately demonstrates femoral and tibial tunnels post ACL reconstruction, while exposing the patient to a quarter of the radiation dose of a conventional CT. This protocol could be used by orthopaedic surgeons for routine post-operative imaging, in place of plain film radiographs.
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Journal Title
BMC Medical Imaging
Volume
20
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s). 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Subject
Clinical sciences
ACL reconstruction
CT scan
Tunnel position