Defining Factors Related to Failure of Medial Meniscus Posterior Root Repair

Defining Factors Related to Failure of Medial Meniscus Posterior Root Repair

Camilo P. Helito, MD, PhD, Prof, BRAZIL Andre Giardino Moreira Da Silva, MD, BRAZIL Marcel F. Sobrado, MD, PHD, BRAZIL Riccardo Gomes Gobbi, MD, PhD, BRAZIL José R. Pécora, Prof., BRAZIL

University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, BRAZIL


2025 Congress   ePoster Presentation   2025 Congress   Not yet rated

 

Anatomic Location

Anatomic Structure

Diagnosis / Condition

Cartilage


Summary: Medial meniscus posterior root repair with transtibial tunnel has 77.3% good results with a mean follow-up of around four years.


Purpose

To evaluate the risk factors for failure of medial meniscus posterior root repair, including the patient's preoperative factors, factors related to surgery and rehabilitation.

Methods

Patients of any age submitted to reinsertion of the medial meniscus posterior root through a transtibial tunnel with at least 24 months of follow-up and operated from January 2015 to January 2023 were evaluated. The following parameters were collected: age, sex, BMI, time from injury to surgery, follow-up time, previous knee surgery, procedure associated with root repair, Kellgren-Lawrence scale, Outerbridge classification, number and type of sutures used, type of fixation, number of tunnels used, patient's compliance with rehabilitation, and postoperative scales of subjective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Lysholm functional scale, Forgotten Joint Score (FJS) and Global Perceived Effect (GPE) and meniscus root repair failure.

Results

One hundred and fifty-four patients were evaluated. Thirty-five (22.7%) were considered failures. According to the univariate analysis, patients who were considered repair failure presented a higher proportion of female patients (p=0.001), higher BMI (p=0.001), greater degree of femoral (p<0.001) and tibial (p=0.018) chondral injuries, repair with a single femoral tunnel (p=0.043) and worse compliance with rehabilitation (p<0.001). Patients with repair failure also showed worse results on all functional scales evaluated, including IKDC (p<0.001), Lysholm (p<0.001), FJS (p<0.001), and GPE (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis has shown that regardless of the other characteristics evaluated, female patients, increased BMI, femoral chondral lesions, and the patients who did not follow compliance with rehabilitation had an increased chance of repair failure.

Conclusion

Medial meniscus posterior root repair with transtibial tunnel has 77.3% good results with a mean follow-up of around four years. Female sex, high BMI, more pronounced femoral chondral injury, and poor patient compliance with rehabilitation were factors related to repair failure regardless of other variables.