Abstract
There are many clinical reports about the treatment of lateral discoid meniscus, and recently partial meniscectomy and subtotal/total meniscectomy have been the most commonly selected surgical procedures. However, few studies have compared the use of different surgical procedures on the basis of preoperative factors. In the present study, therefore, we evaluated whether there are any differences in preoperative factors between the use of partial and subtotal/total meniscectomy. Between April 2003 and August 2008, we performed arthroscopic surgery on 62 knees with symptomatic lateral discoid meniscus. The patients were divided into two groups according to the surgical procedure employed : a partial meniscectomy group and subtotal/total meniscectomy group. The partial meniscectomy group comprised 34 patients (mean age at surgery 29.5 years) and the subtotal/total meniscectomy group comprised 28 patients (mean age 23.1 years). We evaluated four preoperative factors : 1) presence of extension disturbance, 2) presence of click or pain in the friction rotation test, 3) L/M ratio (ratio of lateral and medial joint space length on Rosenberg view X-ray), and 4) MRI findings. There were significant differences in the presence of extension disturbance, L/M ratio and preoperative MRI findings. In addition, it was possible to predict the surgical procedure preoperatively using a combination of preoperative factors. We conclude that preoperative factors are useful for selection of the surgical strategy for lateral discoid meniscus.
