Reparación artroscópica de lesiones meniscales en pacientes mayores de cuarenta años. Resultados con seguimiento mínimo de cuatro años

Abstract

Purpose: our aim is to evaluate clinical results in a series of meniscal repair in patients over forty years old. Reviewing the used technique, index and failure cause and return to sport.

Materials and methods: we retrospectively reviewed our patients who underwent an arthroscopic meniscal repair between January 2012 and January 2018, with or without concomitant ACL reconstruction surgery. We excluded patients under forty years old, previous surgery, and a follow up of less than four years.

Results: forty patients met our criteria. Mean age was forty-eight years old (range 40–61). The mean follow-up was of sixty-six months (range 48–84). The average number of sutures needed to make the repair was of three (range 1–8 sutures). Five patients failed (12.5%), four had an associated ACL reconstruction surgery and the latter was an isolated repair. Lysholm Score, IKDS and Tegner Score showed great results in the post-operative period.

Conclusion: as more and more patients remain active into adulthood, the ability to preserve native meniscal tissue after injury is an important goal. According to the available evidence published so far, and our very promising results shown in this study with a 12.5% failure rate, age as an independent factor should not be considered as a non-repairing factor. Meniscal repair in patients over forty years old present similar results and failure rate comparable to repairs in younger patients after four years of follow-up.