Saturday, April 30, 2016

Meniscus Repair 2

The role of the meniscus in cushioning the joint and protecting the articular cartilage makes preserving them a key part of knee health. For a meniscus tear unfortunately meniscectomy (removing the torn portion) is the appropriate treatment 90% of the time. This is because in most situations a repair will not be successful. The reasons repair is not attempted is due to the lack of blood supply in 1/3-1/2 of the meniscus that precludes healing of a repair. Additionally, if the configuration of the tear is not appropriate then repair is not possible. In the 10% of situations when repair is possible it is typically highly successful in the short term with > 90% success without reoperation within the first 2 years. Our ability to predict ahead of time whether or not repair will be possible has been evaluated. In a study performed in conjunction with my partners and published in  the American Journal of Sports medicine we found we were able to predict the chance to repair a meniscus 74% of the time. This makes it easier to tell patients what to expect after surgery regarding recovery and rehabilitation. Read the Abstract HERE.



We evaluated the MOON meniscus repair results at 2 years in a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine and found that in 82 tears of which we were able to obtain follow up on 77 (94%) there was a success rate of 96% with no further surgery required for the meniscus within the first 2 years following repair in 74 of the 77 repairs. Read the full study HERE. In future blogs I will discuss the longer results we have noted at 5 years or more following meniscus repair.

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