A hamstrings graft harvest is a surgical operation to remove a hamstrings tendon from the inner aspect of the thigh, for use in a graft procedure. Page updated February 2024 by Dr Sheila Strover (Clinical Editor)
In this procedure, the surgeon makes a small incision over the attached lower ends of the semitendinosus ('semi-T') and gracilis, and frees this part from the underlying bone. A 'tendon stripper' then picks up the free end of each tendon and is advanced up into the thigh to shear off a long strip of tendon, which is then freed for use as a graft.
The long tendons of this group of muscles allowed butchers to hang pig legs up on a hook in order to make ham, and this is how they got their name. Three muscles comprise the group known as the hamstrings - the Biceps Femoris muscle, the Semitendinosus muscle and the Semimembranosus muscle. For a hamstrings graft it is usually the semitendinosus tendon that is harvested, often together with the Gracilis tendon (which is not a hamstring. After a small incision is made through the skin, the tendons are revealed, and a tendon stripper is used to slide up the tendons and free them from their muscles.
"Some tissue regenerates, and that....to a variable extent....the tendon does not reattach to its original site, the muscle stump retracts proximally, and atrophies to a variable extent....MRI is an effective tool to document the tissue regeneration"