Summary
Unilateral cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) resection was performed in six goats. Controls
for this procedure included the contralateral (non-operated) joints and six normal
joints. All CCL-deficient joints had a positive cranial drawer movement throughout
the study, whereas all other joints were stable.
None of the joints showed gross evidence of degenerative joint disease at necropsy
52 weeks after the operation. In addition, there were no statistically significant
differences between either the frequency or severity of radiographic abnormalities
in the two groups of joints.
Despite long-term joint instability, degenerative joint disease did not develop in
the CCL-deficient caprine stifle joint. When the goat is used as a model for anterior
cruciate ligament-deficiency in man, the significance of any results should be assessed
in the light of these findings.
The long-term effects of experi-mentally induced cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) deficiency
were studied in goats. All CCL-deficient joints had a positive cranial drawer movement,
both immediately after surgery and at the end of the 52 week study. However, there
was no evidence of cartilage or meniscal damage at postmortem examination, and stifle
radiographs did not reveal evidence of degenerative joint disease.
Keywords
Anterior cruciate ligament - cranial cruciate ligament - degenerative joint disease
- goat
