Purpose
This study was undertaken to document the short-term clinical efficacy of arthroscopic
pullout suture repair in treating posterior root tears of the medial meniscus.
Methods
From March 2004 to August 2006, 26 patients (27 knees) with posterior root tears of
the medial meniscus were treated with arthroscopic pullout suture repair surgery by
the senior author. Of these, 20 consecutive patients (21 knees) with a minimum of
2 years' follow-up treated by arthroscopic pullout suture repair were analyzed. Clinical
results by use of the Lysholm knee and Hospital for Special Surgery scores and radiographic
grade were evaluated, both preoperatively and at final follow-up. In addition, the
second-look arthroscopic findings for 10 knees were analyzed.
Results
A radiographic evaluation using the criteria of Kellgren and Lawrence at final follow-up
showed an increase in radiographic grade by 1 grade in only 1 knee. On the second-look
arthroscopies performed in 10 knees (47.6%), all repaired menisci had healed completely
without additional chondral lesions in the knee. The mean Hospital for Special Surgery
scores improved from 61.1 preoperatively to 93.8 at final follow-up (P < .0001), and the mean preoperative Lysholm knee scores improved from 57.0 to 93.1
at final follow-up (P < .0001). Retear was found in 1 knee at the 6-month follow-up, and reoperation was
performed with the same procedure used for the index surgery.
Conclusions
Arthroscopic pullout suture repair is an effective treatment for alleviating meniscal
symptoms in patients with a symptomatic posterior root tear of the medial meniscus
with degenerated articular cartilage of less than grade III. In addition, no discernable
degenerative arthritic changes were found in terms of radiographic features with our
limited short-term follow-up.
Level of Evidence
Level IV, therapeutic case series.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 29,
2009
Received:
October 23,
2008
Footnotes
The authors report no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
