Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the key ligament connecting the femur to tibia that helps stabilising the knee joint. ACL tear is common. It accounts for over 50% of all knee injuries and affects more than 200,000 people in the United States each year. Patients with ACL tear have a higher risk of developing post-traumatic osteoarthritis. ACL reconstruction (ACLR) with the attachment of tendon grafts within bone tunnels are commonly performed to restore the stability of the joint and thereby minimise injury to both the chondral surface and surrounding tissues. About 130,000 ACLR was performed in the United States in 2006. Both the incidence rates of ACL injuries and ACLR are on the rise, particularly in children and adolescents. Conventional ACLR is not a universally successful procedure, with long healing time and high rates of graft failure (2.8%) and graft laxity (18%). The average cost of an ACLR in the United States was about USD 24,707 ±15,644. The cost for revision surgery and societal cost due to absence from work and sport are expected to be even higher. The demand for a better intervention to improve the outcomes after ACLR and reduce the healing time is huge.
ALN was chosen for the pilot study because it is the most studied BPs, with high bone-binding affinity and more prolonged duration of action. As a member of amino BPs, it also has higher anti-resorptive activities compared to non-amino BPs. Our encouraging results on ALN in the animal studies also provide evidence to support the trial of ALN in human.
ALN have been shown to have a very good safety and tolerability profile. The common side effects of ALN are stomach pain, constipation, diarrhoea, gas, or nausea. Oral ALN seems can induce mild gastro-intestinal disturbances. However, two studies, with subjects treated with ALN for 10 months and 2.9 years, respectively, showed that ALN was not associated with any increased incidence of upper GI tract events. The serious adverse event, oesophageal cancer, has been associated with ALN. However, two published papers with long term observations of 9 and 4.5 years, respectively, showed that ALN was not significantly associated with incident oesophageal or gastric cancer compared with the control group.
This study aims to evaluate the effects of oral administration of ALN on knee stability (primary), peri-tunnel bone loss, tunnel bone formation, knee laxity, knee muscle strength as well as self-reported knee symptoms, function and sports activity over 12 months in patients undergoing ACLR in a pilot study of single-blind randomised controlled trial.
Male and female with age 14 or above at the time of surgery
First ACLR
Single leg involvement
Able to attend pre-operative assessment
Known chronic disease or receiving long-term medications affecting bone metabolism including BPs
Contraindication to alendronate therapy such as poor dental fitness
ACL injury less than 6 weeks
Injury on duty cases
Parallel
Alendronate (ALN)
DrugThe oral ALN is the first-line therapy for osteoporosis, and it has been proven that once-weekly ALN 70 mg is an effective and well-tolerated dose for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. In this study, after receiving the approval of CREC and the Department of Health, we will purchase ALN from drug store. Previous clinical studies have shown that oral administration of ALN at 70mg/week for 1 year and at 5mg/day for 2 years reduced bone loss in postmenopausal women and patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty, respectively. Therefore, in the proposed study, ALN at the dose of 70mg/week will be given to patients post-ACLR for a duration of 8 weeks.
Placebo
DrugIn this study, the placebo is manufactured by a Taiwan factory that follows GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) regulations. The composition of the placebo has been analyzed by the manufacturer and approved by Central IRB and the Department of Health before starting the study.
Single-leg Hop Test (SLH)
SLH test measures the functional stability of the knee with high intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.97 to 0.99 (59). The patient will be asked to perform single-leg hop on both the injured and non-injured legs three times and the hop distance will be recorded. An index score, calculated by dividing the averaged hop distances of the injured leg by that of the non-injured leg, will be reported.
Single-leg Hop Test (SLH)
SLH test measures the functional stability of the knee with high intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.97 to 0.99 (59). The patient will be asked to perform single-leg hop on both the injured and non-injured legs three times and the hop distance will be recorded. An index score, calculated by dividing the averaged hop distances of the injured leg by that of the non-injured leg, will be reported.
Single-leg Hop Test (SLH)
SLH test measures the functional stability of the knee with high intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.97 to 0.99 (59). The patient will be asked to perform single-leg hop on both the injured and non-injured legs three times and the hop distance will be recorded. An index score, calculated by dividing the averaged hop distances of the injured leg by that of the non-injured leg, will be reported.
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