TRIP

Surgical Repair of Meniscal Tears With Concomitant Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in Patients 18 Years and Younger.

American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2010

BACKGROUND: There are sparse data available regarding outcome of meniscal repair performed at the time of ACL reconstruction in the pediatric and adolescent population.
PURPOSE: To review the results of meniscal repair performed at the time of ACL reconstruction in pediatric and adolescent patients.
METHODS: The records of all patients age 18 years or younger who underwent meniscal repair at the time of ACL reconstruction between 1990 and 2005 were reviewed.
Ninety-nine patients (56 female, 43 male) with an average age of 16 years (range, 13-18) were included.
A multivariate model was used to compare this cohort with a previously published cohort of patients with isolated meniscal tears.
RESULTS: The clinical success rate of meniscal repair was 84% for simple tears, 59% for displaced bucket-handle tears, and 57% for complex tears (74% overall).
Twenty-six menisci (26% overall) failed repair and 25 patients underwent repeat arthroscopic surgery (19 partial meniscectomies, 6 re-repairs).
The average Tegner and International Knee Documentation Committee scores were 6.2 (range, 2-10) and 90.3 (range, 52-100), respectively.
Risk factors for failure included complex and bucket-handle tear (P = .01), medial meniscal tears (P = .03), and skeletal immaturity (P = .01).
Compared with isolated meniscal repairs in a similar pediatric and adolescent population, complex tears repaired in combination with ACL reconstruction did significantly better (57% vs 13%; P = .004).