Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR)

Dr. Prodromos is an international leader in the diagnosis and treatment of ACL injuries. Because of his work in this area, he was asked by his peers to assemble the first and only comprehensive textbook on the ACL for Orthopaedic Surgeons –pictured at this link. First published in 2008 it is widely used around the world by Orthopaedic Surgeons. For this reason, Dr. Prodromos was asked to assemble a second edition for release in 2017. The first edition had 84 chapters, the second 142. 17 of the chapters are written by Dr. Prodromos himself, the rest by the world authorities in each of their fields chosen by Dr. Prodromos.

Dr. Prodromos developed an innovative technique, now widely used by orthopaedic surgeons, to harvest the hamstring tendon that virtually eliminates the risk of cutting hamstring grafts too short to use which had been a significant problem previously. In addition, he published the largest series of hamstring ACL reconstructions in the world’s literature: 150 knees with no graft failures, an unsurpassed stability rate for this procedure.

The hamstring graft is the most widely used and strongest ACL graft and is favored by Dr. Prodromos for its combination of strength and safety. Patellar Tendon grafts provide equal stability, as documented by Dr. Prodromos in a published meta-analysis, but have a much higher rate of kneeling pain. The third alternative, Allografts, cadaver grafts, have a high failure rate – as shown in another meta-analysis published by Dr. Prodromos and repeatedly documented elsewhere, incorporate more slowly and can have other risks. For this reason, Dr. Prodromos does not use cadaver grafts except in rare circumstances.

Below is a video that shows patients telling their stories to illustrate various aspects of ACL care. Below is a video that appeared on the WGN evening news concerning his ACL work.