Temporary postoperative treatment with compartment-unloading knee braces or wedge insoles does not improve clinical outcome after partial meniscectomy

PURPOSE: To investigate whether temporary postoperative compartment-unloading therapy after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM)—with either knee braces or wedge insoles—leads to superior clinical outcome as compared to controls. This difference in clinical outcome was tested in the form of two knee scores, physical activity and general health outcome over the first postoperative year. METHODS: Sixty-three patients who underwent arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) were randomized to one of the following three groups: 12 weeks postoperative knee compartment-unloading therapy with either a knee brace (brace group) or wedge insoles (insole group) or no specific postoperative therapy (control group). Patient-reported outcome was assessed with the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form (IKDC Score), the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), the MARX score (physical activity) and the SF-12 (general health). RESULTS: Sixty-three patients were available for analysis. Except for the SF-12 mental score, all other scores showed significant improvement over time. With regard to the hypotheses proposed, no significant group * time interactions were observed for any of the outcome parameters. This means that the group (i.e. the type of postoperative treatment) was not related to the degree of improvement of any of the scores. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that 12 weeks of compartment-unloading therapy—with either a knee brace or wedge insoles—is ineffective with regard to clinical outcome after APM. This applies to the knee score outcome, physical activity and general health outcome over the first year following APM. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Randomized controlled trial, Level I.