Short term functional outcome of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in isolated un-repairable bucket handle tear of medial meniscus

Abstract

Background: Meniscal tears are common orthopaedic injuries, affecting patients of various ages and activity levels. Bucket-handle meniscal tears (BHMTs) are vertical longitudinal tears of the meniscus with displacement of the torn inner free fragment toward the inter-condylar notch region of the femur. Traumatic tear is very common in young age group due to twisting force on weight loaded flexed knee. Degenerative tear is more common in adult group, but can occur at early age especially in obese patient. Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy is a surgical procedure where there is a removal of portion of the torn meniscus. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate short term functional outcome of Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy for isolated bucket handle tear of medial meniscus. Methods: This Prospective interventional study was conducted in the Department of Orthopaedic surgery, BSMMU, Shahbag, Dhaka from September 2019 to March 2022. Within this period, a total number of 30 cases of bucket handle tear of the medial meniscus of knee that required surgery were selected as study sample. Visual analogue scale (VAS), WOMET score and Lysholm scores were used to assess the outcome of Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy. All the data were analyzed statistically by using statistical package for social science (SPSS-25). Results: The results of present study demonstrate that the preoperative means (±SD) VAS, WOMET and Lysholm scores were respectively 7.153±0.437, 753.666±88.336, 50.8±9.105 and postoperative VAS, WOMET and Lysholm scores were 0.369±0.242, 141.0±36.332, and 87.838±4.204 respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed between the groups. Excellent result was found in 56.6%, good 26.7%, fair 10.0% and poor 6.7% cases. A total number of 25 (83.3%) patients were in the satisfactory group and only 5 (16.7%) patients were in the unsatisfactory group. Conclusion: It can be concluded that arthroscopic partial meniscectomy showed satisfactory short term functional outcome for the treatment of isolated bucket handle tear of medial meniscus.