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All-inside meniscal repair device shows equivalent healing rate to inside-out system
Researchers found five failures out of 54 meniscal tears treated with RapidLoc all-inside device.
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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Investigators found a 90.7% success rate with the RapidLoc (DePuy Mitek), a flexible all-inside meniscal repair device, in patients undergoing concurrent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
J. Scott Quinby, MD, of the Sports Medicine Clinic of North Texas in Dallas, reported the study results of 54 meniscal tears in 46 patients here at the Arthroscopy Association of North America 25th Annual Meeting.
“The RapidLoc all-inside meniscal repair device has an intermediate-term healing rate equivalent to the 'gold standard' inside-out repair technique,” Quinby said.
At the mean 34.8 months' follow-up, he and his colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlotte identified five failures in four patients, who required meniscectomy.
“Three of these patients with failures experienced a new knee injury, but we had to include those because it was a failure of the device,” Quinby said. “All failures did have confirmation of intact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) grafts.” The researchers used MR arthrography and repeat arthroscopy to evaluate patients with symptoms suggesting meniscal repair failure.
They used univariate analysis to determine the following predictive values for failure:
- bucket-handle configuration,
- multiplanar morphology,
- tear length >2 cm,
- and chronicity for longer than three months.
“The predictive variables for failure must be considered during operative decision-making,” Quinby said.
Nonpredictive values included compartment, zone, ACL graft choice, gender, age, follow-up and Visual Analog Scale score, Quinby said.
In an analysis of the healed patients, the researchers confirmed a negative correlation between tear chronicity and International Knee Documentation Committee score.
“More research is necessary to determine the long-term success over the intermediate-term success of this RapidLoc device,” Quinby said.
For more information:
- Quinby J, Golish S, Hart J, et al. All-inside meniscal repair using a new flexible, tensionable device. #SS-37. Presented at the Arthroscopy Association of North America 25th Annual Meeting. May 18-21, 2006. Hollywood, Fla.