Researchers retrospectively reviewed the records of 251 patients who underwent unilateral ACL reconstruction. Patients were divided into three groups according to smoking history — nonsmokers, current smokers and former smokers. Preoperative values and one-year postoperative findings were compared among the groups.
The study found that mean side-to-side difference in anterior translation (and standard deviation) was 2.08 ± 1.08 mm in the nonsmokers group, 2.65 ± 1.31 mm in the smokers group and 2.15 ± 1.05 mm in the former smokers group.
Also, patients who had stopped smoking at least one month prior to ACL reconstruction had no significant difference in outcomes compared with patients who had never smoked.
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