Return to play after meniscal surgery in soccer players

Abstract

Meniscal injury is a common sports-related injury. Although numerous studies about meniscal injury have been reported, only a few studies have been conducted on meniscal injury in soccer players. This study was intended to evaluate the clinical outcomes after meniscal surgery in soccer players.

This was a retrospective study on 33 knees of 32 soccer players who underwent arthroscopic meniscal surgery. All patients were men with a mean age of 19.1 years at the time of surgery. Medial and lateral meniscal injuries were diagnosed in 10 and 23 knees, respectively. The type of medial meniscal injury was a bucket-handle tear from the anterior horn to mid-portion in 9 cases, and a horizontal tear at the posterior horn in one case. Lateral meniscal tears were flap tears in the anterior horn to midbody in 6 cases who underwent partial meniscectomy, while meniscal repair was performed in the remaining cases (17 knees), with or without partial meniscectomy of the lateral meniscus. In terms of return to play, patients who underwent partial meniscectomy and meniscal repair needed 4.3 and 6.2 months, respectively.

The present study demonstrated that longitudinal tears of the anterior horn of the medial and the lateral meniscus are a frequent type of injury.

All patients could return to play and meniscal surgery yielded satisfactory outcomes in soccer players.