Clinical Observations of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Lesions in Patients with Chronic Fatigue

Abstract Purpose To explore how chronic fatigue impacts on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) lesion and observe related clinical characteristics.Methods A retrospective study conducted from December 2015 to December 2019, includes 86 males who involved chronic fatigue （determined by the fatigue self-assessment scale ）and present symptoms of knee pain with no trauma. For those who diagnosed with ACL lesion, we recorded their basic characteristics such as age, BMI（kg/m2）, daily training time, etc. and carried out some tests on them to evaluate their clinical performance and observed their manifestations under X-ray, MRI and arthroscopy around the treatment procedure.Results Of all 86 males with ACL lesion, 59 patients were injured in the left knee while 27 in the right knee. Age, weekly training intensity, BMI, and knee hyperextension are independent influence factors for ACL lesion through multivariate analysis. Physical examinations and radiologic features included resting pain(23[26.7%]); standing pain(56[65.1%]); exercising pain(86[100%]); “powerless knee”(34[39.5%]); anterior patellar pain(41[47.7%]); knee axis tenderness(38[44.2%]); first degree positive in ADT test(34[39.5%]); second to third degree positive in ADT test(23[26.7%]); positive in Lachman test(73[84.9%]); positive in pivot shift test(5[5.8%]); ACL cyst(15[17.4%]); ACL thickness change(75[87.2%]); PCL tortuosity(35[40.7%]); synovitis(80[93.0%]); intra-articular effusion(79[91.9%]).Conclusion The main risk factor of ACL lesion is patients’ training experience time. Knee pain, mild anterior instability of knee joint, synovitis and intra-articular effusion are the most typical clinical manifestations of ACL patients.