Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jun 18, 2024; 15(6): 547-553
Published online Jun 18, 2024. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v15.i6.547
Outcome of meniscal repairs in paediatric population: A tertiary centre experience
Ayman Gabr, Samson Williams, Sophie Dodd, Nick Barton-Hanson
Ayman Gabr, Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, West Suffolk Hospital, Suffolk IP33 2QZ, United Kingdom
Samson Williams, Sophie Dodd, Nick Barton-Hanson, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool L14 5AB, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Gabr A was responsible for conceptualization, data analysis, writing up the manuscript; Williams S was responsible for conceptualization, data collection and analysis; Dodd S was responsible for data collection and analysis; Barton-Hanson N was responsible for conceptualization and supervision of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the institutional review board. No ethical approval was required given the nature of the study. No additional hospital appointments or clinical examination were required for this study.
Informed consent statement: This was not required. All collected data was retrospectively obtained from the hospital system by the clinical team looking after these patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the Authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No data available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ayman Gabr, FRCS (Ed), MD, Surgeon, Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, West Suffolk Hospital, Hardwick Ln, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 2QZ, United Kingdom. aymangabr@hotmail.co.uk
Received: December 31, 2023
Revised: April 5, 2024
Accepted: May 24, 2024
Published online: June 18, 2024
Processing time: 164 Days and 14.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Meniscal sparing surgery is a widely utilised treatment option for unstable meniscal tears with the aim of minimising the risk of progression towards osteoarthritis. However, there is limited data in the literature on meniscal repair outcomes in skeletally immature patients.

AIM

To evaluate the re-operation rate and functional outcomes of meniscal repairs in children and adolescents.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of all patients who underwent arthroscopic meniscal repair surgery between January 2007 and January 2018. All patients were under the age of 18 at the time of surgery. Procedures were all performed by a single surgeon. Information was gathered from our hospital Electronic Patient Records system. The primary outcome measure was re-operation rate (need for further surgery on the same meniscus). Secondary outcome measures were surgical complications and patient reported outcome measures that were International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), Tegner and Lysholm scores.

RESULTS

We identified 59 patients who underwent 66 All-inside meniscal repairs (32 medial meniscus and 34 Lateral meniscus). Meniscal repairs were performed utilizing FasT-Fix (Smith and Nephew) implants. There were 37 males and 22 females with an average age of 14 years (range 6-16). The average follow-up time was 53 months (range 26-140). Six patients had concomitant anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery along with the meniscal repair. There were no intra-operative complications. The re-operation rate for meniscal repairs was 16.6% (11 cases) with 2 patients requiring further meniscal repairs and 9 patients underwent partial meniscectomies. The mean postoperative IKDC score was 88 (44-100), Tegner score was 7(2-10) and Lysholm score was 94 (57-100).

CONCLUSION

Our results showed that arthroscopic repair of meniscal tears in the paediatric population is an effective treatment option that has a low failure rate and good postoperative clinical with the advantage of preserving meniscal tissues.

Keywords: Meniscus; Meniscal repair; Outcome; Meniscal preservation

Core Tip: There has been a significant shift towards meniscal preservation surgery, recognizing the crucial role of the menisci in knee joint function. Although clinical outcomes of meniscal repairs are well-documented in the literature, data on pediatric outcomes are limited. This study demonstrates that meniscal repair in pediatric and adolescent patients has a low re-operation rate and satisfactory postoperative functional outcomes, as measured by Patient-Reported Outcome Measures. This indicates that arthroscopic repair of meniscal tears is a safe and effective treatment option for this specific age group.