Arthroscopic surgeries for 16 meniscal and 10 shelf lesions were performed from Aug. '82 to Sep. '83. Meniscal lesions were diagnosed in 14 patients (9 males, 5 females: average age was 26 years; range, 14 to 49 years), of which 5 were medial lesions and 11 lateral meniscal lesions, of which 9 were discoid type. Shelf lesions were revealed in 10 patients (5 males, 5 females; average age was 25 years; range, 13 to 38 years). Partial removals of unstable parts of the injured menisci were performed and uninjured stable periphery of the menisci were preserved. Degenerated and tightened shelfs were resected widely. Postoperatively, full weight bearing was allowed on the second or third day in the patients, who were operated on partial meniscectomy or resection of the shelf. Patients who were operated on total meniscectomy, were allowed full weight bearing on the second week after the surgery. Postoperative evaluation was performed by Kurosawa's scoring procedure.
Preoperative score which was 3 points (range, 1 to 5 scores) was improved to 8.1 points (range 6 to 10 points) after meniscetomy. The clinical symptoms on shelf injured patients were all improved postoperatively.
In conclusions, arthroscopic surgery is actively indicated for meniscal or shelf lesions.
