FUNCTIONAL EVOLUTION OF MENISCAL REPAIR USING ABSORBABLE IMPLANTS

To evaluate the functional evolution of knees after repair of longitudinal meniscal rupture with absorbable arrow implant. Methods: Between June 1997 and February 2001, 23 patients with a mean age of 26.3 years were evaluated. The mean follow-up time was 72.87 months (45-96). We performed 19 medial and 4 lateral meniscal repairs. The patients were pre and postoperatively evaluated regarding joint function according to the Lysholm scale, and, postoperatively, according to IKDC. Results: For better understanding, the 23 treated cases were divided into three groups. Twenty one had ACL injuries, eleven of whom were submitted to ligament reconstruction (Group I). All these 11 cases were regarded as satisfactory. The remaining 10 cases of the 21 with ACL lesion were not submitted to ligament reconstruction (Group II). Of these, 5 evolved satisfactorily, not requiring ligament reconstruction. The remaining five evolved with complaint of ligament instability, being all submitted to reconstruction. Four of these had an integral meniscus and one presented a failure of the medial meniscus. The remaining two cases who did not present ACL injury (Group III), one patient evolved satisfactorily and one developed a failure of the lateral meniscus. According to the Lysholm scale, preoperative mean score was 57.53 and the postoperative mean score was 86.95, evidencing a statistically significant improvement (Wilcoxon p < 0.01). The non-parametric ANOVA was employed for ordinal data with repeated measurements to assess pre- and postoperative measurements, considering Groups I and II. We assessed knee stabilization and found no statistically significant difference between Groups I and II (p = 0.648). Even if there were differences between the two groups, both had the same behavior. On postoperative assessment with IKDC, 4 patients were grade A, 13 were grade B, and 6 were grade C. Two C results were caused by a meniscal rupture. Conclusion: Of the 23 patients, only two presented known failures of the sutured meniscus. According to the Lysholm scale, there was a significant improvement in the treated patients. The ACL repair caused no bias on the results.