Impact of type of meniscal tear on radiographic and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: a sixteen-year followup of meniscectomy with matched controls

Englund M, Roos EM, Lohmander LS · Arthritis and Rheumatism

Radiographic tibiofemoral osteoarthritis was present in 66 index knees (43%), and 77 patients (50%) had a symptomatic index knee. Set against matched controls, the relative risk of combined radiographic and symptomatic osteoarthritis was RR 7.0 (95% CI 2.1-23.5) where the tear had been degenerative and 2.7 (95% CI 0.9-7.7) where it had been traumatic. The authors read the degenerative tear as a sign of osteoarthritis already beginning rather than only its cause.

Population

155 patients with intact cruciate ligaments, mean age 54, examined a mean of 16 years after isolated limited meniscectomy, with 68 controls matched for age, sex and body mass index

Intervention

Standardised radiography and the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score

Limitations

Observational, and confounding by indication runs through the whole design: the knee that gets a degenerative tear may already be the knee that was going to develop osteoarthritis, which is the authors' own reading. Full text was not retrievable.