The Knee
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of hamstring (HT) autografts versus bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) autografts for reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Chinese Biomedicine Database (CBM) for published randomised clinical trials (RCTs) relevant to ACL reconstruction comparing HT and BPTB autografts. Data analyses were performed with Cochrane Collaboration's RevMan 5.0. ⋯ Outcome measures that favoured HT autografts included anterior knee pain, kneeling pain and extension loss. There was no statistical difference of postoperative graft failure. Overall, postoperative complications of the knee joint were lower for HT autografts than for BPTB autografts, and BPTB autografts were superior to HT autografts in resuming stability of the knee joint, but four-strand HT combined with application of the modern endobutton HT graft-fixation technique could increase knee-joint stability.