Clinical outcomes of all-inside meniscal repair using pre-loaded suture anchors

Abstract

Purpose: This prospective study aims to evaluate clinical results of arthroscopic repair of meniscal tears using clinical scores and functional outcome measures while establishing clinical evaluation as a dependable method of evaluating the healing process of a repaired meniscus. Methods: From June 2019 to October 2020, 203 patients with a mean age of 24 (range, 18-54) years with 203 meniscal tears underwent arthroscopic all-inside meniscal repair using a pre-loaded suture anchor. All tears were located in either the red-red or red-white zone. Simultaneous anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction was performed in 170 (84%) of the patients. Postoperatively, patients were evaluated based on clinical examination using Barrett’s criteria wherein the presence of locking, joint-line tenderness, swelling or positive McMurray test were considered to indicate clinical failure. Further, we also used the International Knee Documentation Committee score, Lysholm score and Short-Form 36 score for postoperative evaluation. Results: At average of 1.2 years follow-up, the success rate of arthroscopic meniscal repairs in this series was 94% (191 clinically healed menisci out of 203) according to the criteria of Barrett et al. The IKDC, Lysholm and SF-36 scores had significantly improved postoperatively. Conclusions: Arthroscopic all-inside repair using a pre-loaded suture anchor (FastFix 360) is a safe and effective procedure for treating meniscal tears, and clinical evaluation was found to be a dependable method of evaluating the results of a healed, repaired meniscus.