Investigation of the effect of focal cartilage lesions in the same compartment of knees undergoing arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy: Long-term follow up

Obective: To compare the retrospective clinical and radiological results between patients with arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy with cartilage lesions in the medial compartment and patients with arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy (APMM) without any cartilage lesions in any compartment. Method: The patients who underwent arthroscopic treatment by a single orthopedic surgeon between 1991-2008 were included in the study. Patients between 18 and 50 years of age with isolated medial meniscal tears developed due to any cause and treated with APMM were evaluated retrospectively. Among the patients evaluated, 21 patients with cartilage lesions in the medial compartment were named as group A and 25 patients without cartilage lesions in any compartment were named as group B and were included in the study. Results: Preoperative Lysholm and postoperative mean VAS scores and Tegner activity scales were similar in both groups. However, postoperative Lysholm score, IKDC and KOOS were significantly different in favor of group B. Kellgren Lawrence scores were significantly different between the groups in favor of the B group. Negative correlation between BMI and post-op Lysholm, Tegner, İKDC and KOOS scores were observed in group A. However no correlation was observed between BMI and any score in group B. Conclusion: Patients with APMM followed for an average of 20 years had improved functionally; Better functional results were observed in patients without cartilage lesions during APMM. Despite functional improvement, radiological degeneration was observed in both groups. Keywords: meniscal tears, arthroscopic meniscectomy, joint cartilage defect, long term results.