Evidence to support the interpretation and use of the Anatomic Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Checklist.

Abstract

Published papers on anatomic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction often lack details in the description of the surgical procedure, and there are large variations in anatomic ACL reconstruction techniques. We aimed to develop a validated checklist to be used for anatomic ACL reconstruction. First, a list of all potential items that could be used in the checklist was generated. Thirty-four ACL experts were selected to participate in an anonymous online survey to rate the importance of these items on a scale of 1 to 4 (with a score of 4 having the most importance). The results were verified by surveying a large sample of 959 orthopaedic specialists who are peer reviewers for four major orthopaedic journals. Items were included in the final checklist if they received an importance score of 3 or 4 from at least 75% of the survey takers. The survey response rate was 79% (twenty-seven of thirty-four) of the ACL experts and 40% (379 of 959) of the peer reviewers. The final Anatomic ACL Reconstruction Checklist includes seventeen items with a maximum score of 19 points. The final checklist underwent preliminary testing for internal consistency, intertester reliability, and validity. Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency was 0.82, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for intertester reliability was 0.65. This large survey-based study on anatomic ACL reconstruction resulted in the development of the Anatomic ACL Reconstruction Checklist; preliminary evidence for interpretation of the scores is provided.