Inside-out Medial Meniscal Repair: Improved Surgical Exposure With a Sub-semimembranosus Approach

Inside-out meniscal repair is considered the gold standard for reparable tears of the medial and lateral menisci despite the recent popularity of all-inside devices. Accurate suture passage is required to perform a stable repair as well as to prevent inadvertent neurovascular injury from the suture needles. Placement of a deep soft-tissue retractor is necessary to identify and retrieve these needles prior to tying the sutures. Several authors have recommended placement of this retractor in the interval anterior to the gastrocnemius muscle belly and above the semimembranosus tendon. However, we have noted that the needles often pass distal to the retractor when it is placed in this interval owing to the reorientation of the joint line that occurs with the knee in a relatively extended position during suture placement. We describe a modified technique in which the retractor is placed inferior to the semimembranosus, which puts it directly in line with the needles’ trajectory. This modification makes inside-out medial meniscal repair safer and more efficient.