Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 6, 2025; 13(7): 95004
Published online Mar 6, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i7.95004
Impact of time between meniscal injury and isolated meniscus repair on post-operative outcomes: A systematic review
Kashif Javid, Xavier Akins, Nicole G Lemaster, Amer Ahmad, Austin V Stone
Kashif Javid, Xavier Akins, Nicole G Lemaster, Amer Ahmad, Austin V Stone, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40504, United States
Author contributions: Javid K, Akins X, Lemaster NG, and Stone AV contributed to formulation and design of the research study; Javid K, Akins X, Lemaster NG, and Ahmed A were responsible for data abstraction and analysis; Javid K, Akins X, and Lemaster NG were responsible for manuscript writing; Javid K, Akins X, Lemaster NG, Ahmed A, and Stone AV contributed to manuscript editing and revision; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors had any conflicts of interest to disclose.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: Kashif Javid, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, University of Kentucky, 2195 Harrodsburg Road, Lexington, KY 40504, United States. kashifjavid2000@gmail.com
Received: April 2, 2024
Revised: October 13, 2024
Accepted: November 14, 2024
Published online: March 6, 2025
Processing time: 236 Days and 10.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Meniscal tears are one of the most common knee injuries. After the diagnosis of a meniscal tear has been made, there are several factors physicians use to guide clinical decision-making. The influence of time between injury and isolated meniscus repair on patient outcomes is not well described. Assessing this relationship is important as it may influence clinical decision-making and can add to the preoperative patient education process. We hypothesized that increasing the time from injury to meniscus surgery would worsen postoperative outcomes.

AIM

To investigate the current literature for data on the relationship between time between meniscus injury and repair on patient outcomes.

METHODS

PubMed, Academic Search Complete, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus were searched for studies published between January 1, 1995 and July 13, 2023 on isolated meniscus repair. Exclusion criteria included concomitant ligament surgery, incomplete outcomes or time to surgery data, and meniscectomies. Patient demographics, time to injury, and postoperative outcomes from each study were abstracted and analyzed.

RESULTS

Five studies met all inclusion and exclusion criteria. There were 204 (121 male, 83 female) patients included. Three of five (60%) studies determined that time between injury and surgery was not statistically significant for postoperative Lysholm scores (P = 0.62), Tegner scores (P = 0.46), failure rate (P = 0.45, P = 0.86), and International Knee Documentation Committee scores (P = 0.65). Two of five (40%) studies found a statistically significant increase in Lysholm scores with shorter time to surgery (P = 0.03) and a statistically significant association between progression of medial meniscus extrusion ratio (P = 0.01) and increasing time to surgery.

CONCLUSION

Our results do not support the hypothesis that increased time from injury to isolated meniscus surgery worsens postoperative outcomes. Decision-making primarily based on injury interval is thus not recommended.

Keywords: Meniscus; Meniscal; Meniscus repair; Meniscectomy; Patient reported outcomes; Postoperative outcomes; Time to surgery; Injury interval

Core Tip: The influence of time between injury and isolated meniscus repair on patient outcomes is not well described. Following systematic review of the literature, five studies met all inclusion and exclusion criteria, describing 204 (121 male, 83 female) patients. A majority of studies included found that the interval between injury and surgery did not have statistically significant impact on postoperative outcomes. These results do not support our hypothesis that increased time interval between injury and surgery leads to worse postoperative outcomes. Thus, decision-making primarily based on injury interval is not recommended. Further research exploring the relationship between injury interval and outcomes is recommended.