Three dimensional orientation of the native anterior cruciate ligament in magnetic resonance imaging.

The patient demographics were as follows: age average: 45 years old, BMI average: 27,1, 54% right knees, and 60% female. The average angle for all the measurements was 76,95° (SD + - 6,8°) in the sagittal plane, 81,65° (SD + -7,79°) in the coronal plane and 33,17° (SD + - 4,98°) in the axial plane. No statistically significant differences were found between the categorical variables mentioned; moderate to substantial interobserver reliability strength was found with an average kappa of 0.791 for all measurements Conclusion: the three-dimensional orientation of the native ACL in a group of healthy individuals was established. The findings can be helpful for performing anatomical reconstructions of the ACL in injured patients using as reference as the average calculated angles, or by the measure of the contralateral non injured knee for surgical planning; these results serve as a basis for the design of a technique that optimizes the three-dimensional position of the ACL when it undergoes reconstruction in the trend towards greater precision for better functional results. Biomechanical and clinical-surgical studies are required to further evaluate our results.