Arthroscopic meniscal repair evaluated by second-look arthroscopy

Abstract

Of 353 arthroscopic peripheral meniscal repairs per formed using the "outside to inside" suturing technique with rasp preparation of the tear region, 74 repairs (50 medial and 24 lateral) were assessed by second-look arthroscopy and are the basis of this report. Results were graded as either healed, incompletely healed, or failed; these findings were correlated with clinical symp toms and associated ACL deficiency. Overall, asymp tomatic healing occurred in 84%, with 65% healed and 19% incompletely healed. The failure rate was 16%. All failures were symptomatic while all healed and incom pletely healed menisci were asymptomatic. Failure was associated with ACL deficiency in all cases. No failures occurred in either an ACL uninjured knee or an ACL reconstructed knee. Failure was also associated with tear location in the posterior horn of the medial menis cus. Eleven of 12 failures (92%) involved posterior medial meniscal tears with only 1 failure located pos terolaterally. Visual evidence of healing required a 4 month time interval.