Semitendinosus and gracilis tendon harvest in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: Operative techniques in orthopaedics

In the young, active patient, reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament has become the standard of care. Although reconstruction with bone-patellar-tendon-bone autograft has long been considered the gold standard, recent advances in techniques and fixation have improved outcomes with hamstring autografts. Although providing comparable results, reconstruction with hamstring autografts decreases postoperative morbidity. In this article, we provide a detailed description of the senior author's (CDH) preferred technique for harvesting hamstring autografts. In addition, we describe our preferred technique for arthroscopic-assisted anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.