A Review of Current Concepts of the Anterolateral Complex of the Knee

Vasileios Athanasiou; Andreas Panagopoulos; Antonios Kouzelis; Zinon T Kokkalis; John Lakoumentas; Konstantinos Katsanos; John Gliatis

doi:10.52965/001c.38651

A Review of Current Concepts of the Anterolateral Complex of the Knee

Orthop Rev (Pavia). 2022 Oct 4;14(4):38651. doi: 10.52965/001c.38651. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Vasileios Athanasiou¹, Andreas Panagopoulos¹, Antonios Kouzelis¹, Zinon T Kokkalis¹, John Lakoumentas², Konstantinos Katsanos³, John Gliatis¹

Affiliations

¹ Orthopaedic Department, Patras University Hospital, Greece.
² Medical Physics Department, Medical School, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
³ Department of Interventional Radiology, Patras University Hospital, Greece.

Abstract

The anterolateral complex (ALC) of the knee has gained increased interest over the last decades due to the high revision rates of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Furthermore, in patients with an ACL tear, the injury of at least one of the ALC's anatomic structures has been shown to be significantly higher, thus affecting its secondary stabilizing role at the knee joint. As such, ACLR augmentation techniques, that embrace the ALC, have been proposed recently, and indications for these procedures are still evolving. This review aims to present and discuss the most current anatomical, biomechanical, and imaging data, current reconstruction techniques, and the clinical results of ALC reconstruction.

Keywords: “Anterior cruciate ligament”; “Anterolateral complex of the knee”; “Anterolateral ligament reconstruction”; “Anterolateral ligament”; “Lateral extra-articular tenodesis”.