Mechanical Symptoms and Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy in Patients With Degenerative Meniscus Tear: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Trial

Sihvonen R, Englund M, Turkiewicz A, Järvinen TLN · Annals of Internal Medicine

Catching or locking was reported before surgery by 32 patients (46%) in the meniscectomy group and 37 (49%) in the sham group; at any follow-up point the numbers were 34 (49%) and 33 (43%), a risk difference of 0.03 (95% CI -0.06 to 0.12). Among the 69 who had catching or locking to begin with the risk difference was 0.07 (95% CI -0.08 to 0.22). The authors read this as questioning whether a degenerative tear causes the mechanical symptom it is resected for.

Population

The 146 FIDELITY participants, of whom 69 reported catching or locking before surgery

Intervention

Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy

Comparator

Sham surgery

Limitations

Post-hoc analysis, and generalisable only to catching and occasional locking because few participants reported other mechanical symptoms. Full text was not retrievable.