Summary

Patients with delayed surgery was associated with higher risk of developing medial meniscus tear, and radial tear of medial meniscus was the most common type among them.

Abstract

Introduction

The decision of performing the surgery in middle-age patients with anterior cruciate ligament tear is still controversial. There were few studies that have compared the risk of developing further meniscal and chondral injuries between early and delayed ACLR. We aimed to compare outcomes between patients who underwent early anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and delayed ACLR, stratified by the cut point at 1 year after injury.

Materials And Methods

We conducted this retrospective, single-center cohort study from 2013 through 2022. This study consisted of 72 early ACLR and 51 delayed ACLR procedures. Patient characteristic data and time to surgery were recorded. The outcome domains included intraoperative findings of meniscal and chondral injuries, 30-day and 90-day readmission and 1-year reoperation events. We performed multivariate regression analysis to compare the risk of medial meniscus injury following delayed ACLR.

Results

The overall rates of 30-day, 90-day readmission and 1-year reoperation following ACLR was 0%, 0.81% and 0%, respectively. In univariate regression, patients with delayed ACLR were at a higher risk of medial meniscus injury (p<0.01). The multivariate analysis revealed among patients with medial meniscus injury, patients with delayed surgery and pre-existing knee osteoarthritis were considered as risk factors with statistically significance.

Conclusion

To further identify the risk factor of developing injuries of patients with delayed ACLR can help surgeons to make the decision of the timing of surgical intervention. Patients with delayed surgery was associated with higher risk of developing medial meniscus tear, and radial tear of medial meniscus was the most common type among them.