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May 07, 2023
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Pediatric patients had 11% complication rate 8 months after arthroscopic meniscus repair

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Key takeaways:

  • Pediatric patients with an isolated meniscus repair had a complication rate of 14.25%.
  • Researchers found no statistical cause for the failed meniscal repairs.

NEW ORLEANS — Pediatric patients who underwent arthroscopic meniscus repair had a complication rate around 11% at 8-month follow-up, with the highest complication rate found among those with isolated meniscus repairs.

In a prospective, multicenter, quality improvement, registry study, Henry B. Ellis Jr., MD, and colleagues used the Clavien-Dindo classification system to identify complications among more than 2,000 arthroscopic meniscus repairs in pediatric patients. Ellis noted patients with type I classification were excluded due to too much variability and there were no patients reported that had type IV or type V classification.

OT0523Ellis_AANA_Graphic_01
Data were derived from Ellis HB Jr., et al. Pediatric meniscus repair: Safety profile based on greater than 2,000 arthroscopic meniscus repairs. Presented at: Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting; May 4-6, 2023; New Orleans.
Henry B. Ellis Jr.
Henry B. Ellis Jr.

“Type II [classification] is any deviation from a normal postoperative course. So, if you have stiffness and more physical therapy or more clinic visits, that would be considered a type II. If [you need] an intervention, like surgery, it then becomes a type III,” Ellis said in his presentation at the Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting.

Ellis noted about one-fourth of patients had an isolated meniscus repair and most patients had a meniscus repair combined with an ACL repair. The overall complication rate was 11%, according to Ellis. He noted patients with isolated meniscus repairs had a complication rate of 14.25%, of which 5.5% were failed repairs at 8 months postoperatively.

“We couldn’t find any factors, implant, location – nothing statistically came out as a specific area that caused these failed repairs,” Ellis said.

Among more recent data of 3,777 arthroscopic meniscus repairs, Ellis noted an overall failed repair rate of 1.2%, with around 6% of failed repairs found among isolated meniscus repairs.

“Now, we just need to know what our long-term failure rate is going to look like.” Ellis said. “The data at 2 years is probably going to be more important than 8 months.”