Introduction
The human body is a wonderful structure containing a wide array of components, enabling us to perform many tasks. Among these components are internal and external organs, bones, muscles, limbs, and connective tissue. When any of these become injured or disabled, our tasks become increasingly difficult to achieve. One of the most commonly injured parts of the body is a ligament. Ligaments are a connective tissue found in joints, whose main task is to attach bone to bone, serving kinematic roles in guiding and protecting joint movements. Arguably the most essential parts of a joint in the body, ligaments allow one to perform the proper range of motion and support needed.
When a ligament is torn, treatment is usually through rest, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery. During a surgical procedure to repair a torn ligament, the surgeon replaces the ligament with a graft. A graft is virtually a transplant of the ligament and is categorized as two specific types. The patient can either receive a transplant of an allograft or an autograft. An autograft is directly from the patient as “auto” is derived from Latin, meaning self. An example would be if the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is torn in the knee, a graft can be created from either part of the hamstring tendon or the patellar tendon. In contrast, an allograft is created from an outside source which is, more often than not, a donor. Studies show that anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with an allograft results in less pain, better function, and fewer activity limitations after surgery when compared to an autograft. Other advantages of an allograft are less scarring associated and a decrease of operative time in addition to anesthesia time. These positive factors of an allograft give a patient a greater chance of a quick recovery process, shorter medication prescription, and a faster return to performing activities of daily living, therefore making a spider silk constructed allograft a promising idea.
Tendon versus a ligament