Purpose: To determine the displacement forces across a lateral meniscal tear during motion.
Type of Study: Experimental laboratory biomechanical study. Methods: A middle third longitudinal lateral meniscal cut was created arthroscopically at
the “red-white” junction in 5 intact porcine knees. With a pressure transducer in
the tear, the knees were repeatedly cycled through a full range of motion. Pressure
data were gathered with the knees held at neutral, internal rotation (IRot), and external
rotation (ERot) and matched to the specific flexion angle measured by electronic goniometer.
Averaged pressure measurements were calculated at each 5° interval. Results: The highest pressures were seen at full extension (neutral, 589 mm Hg; IRot, 1,110
mm Hg; ERot, 337 mm Hg) and declined to a low at 90° of flexion (neutral, 133 mm Hg;
IRot, 314 mm Hg; ERot, 187 mm Hg). Then the pressures increased steadily after 100°
as the knees were further flexed. The highest pressure was always seen with IRot.
IRot during flexion resulted in higher lateral meniscus compressive loads than ERot.
Conclusions: This model demonstrated that a middle third longitudinal lateral meniscal cut is
compressed throughout the full range of knee motion. At no time were negative intrameniscal
tear pressures registered that would suggest meniscal cut separation. Clinical Relevance: These data suggest that meniscal compressive loads, not distractive loads, occur
throughout knee flexion and extension. The absence of distractive loads across a meniscal
cut suggests that the ability of a repair to align the meniscal fragment may be more
important than a high load to failure strength.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to ArthroscopyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Failure strengths of suture versus biodegradable arrow for meniscal repair.Arthroscopy. 1997; 13: 296-300
- Meniscus suture techniques.Arthroscopy. 1989; 5: 324-327
- Results of meniscal repair using a bioabsorbable screw.Arthroscopy. 2004; 20: 586-590
- Meniscal repair devices.Arthroscopy. 2004; 20: 273-286
- Tensile fixation of absorbable meniscal repair devices as a function of hydrolysis time. An in vitro experimental study.Am J Sports Med. 2001; 29: 118-123
- Strengths of different meniscus suturing techniques.Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 1997; 5: 80-83
- Meniscal repair devices.Arthroscopy. 2000; 16: 613-618
- Load to failure testing of new meniscal repair devices.Arthroscopy. 2004; 20: 45-50
- The effect of suture type on meniscus repair.Am J Knee Surg. 1997; 10: 2-9
- Biomechanical investigations of different meniscal repair implants in comparison with horizontal sutures on human meniscus.Arthroscopy. 2001; 17: 439-444
- Pull-out strength and stiffness of meniscal repair using absorbable arrows of Ti-Cron vertical and horizontal loop sutures.Am J Sports Med. 1999; 27: 626-631
- Load to failure of common meniscal repair techniques.Arthroscopy. 1997; 13: 731-736
- Failure strengths of different meniscal suturing techniques.Arthroscopy. 1995; 11: 146-150
- Cyclic testing of meniscal sutures.Arthroscopy. 2000; 16: 505-510
- [Effect of various suture strength factors on behavior of meniscus sutures in cyclic loading conditions].Unfallchirug. 2001; 104: 392-398
- Biomechanical test comparing the load to failure of the biodegradable meniscus arrow versus meniscal suture.Arthroscopy. 1999; 15: 726-732
- Arthroscopic meniscal repair using the BioStinger.Arthroscopy. 2005; 21: 744-750
- Meniscal suture.Clin Orthop. 1989; 243: 286-293
- Repairs by trephination and suturing of longitudinal injuries in the avascular area of the meniscus in goats.Am J Sports Med. 1995; 23: 35-41
- Displacements of the menisci under joint load.J Biomech. 1994; 27: 421-431
- [Biomechanical correlations of lesions associated with traumatic diseases of the anterior cruciate ligament. Analysis with magnetic resonance].Radiol Med (Torino). 1996; 91: 693-699
- Unsatisfactory clinical results of meniscal repair using the meniscus arrow.Arthroscopy. 2005; 21: 905e1-905e7
- Meniscus repair aftercare.Sports Med Arthrosc Rev. 1999; 7: 43-47
- Accelerated rehabilitation for meniscus repairs.Arthroscopy. 1994; 10: 206-210
- Meniscus repair rehabilitation with concurrent anterior cruciate reconstruction.Arthroscopy. 1997; 13: 433-437
- Accelerated rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.Am J Sports Med. 1990; 18: 292-299
- Accelerated rehabilitation after arthroscopic meniscal repair.Arthroscopy. 1996; 12: 680-686
- The impact of loading on deformation about posteromedial meniscal tears.Orthopedics. 2000; 23: 597-601
- Interspecies variation of compressive biomechanical properties of the meniscus.J Biomed Mater Res. 1995; 29: 823-828
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2005 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
