A mid-term clinical follow-up study on repair of the meniscus tears by a modified arthroscopic outside-in puncture suture technique

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical effect of a modified arthroscopic outside-in suture technique in the treatment of meniscus tear using a spinal needle. METHODSFrom January 2015 to October 2017, 95 patients treated with this method were followed-up. Among these cases, there were 36 males and 59 females. The age of the patients ranged from 16 to 77 years, (46.79±18.07) years in average. Among them, there were 28 patieats aged 16-35, 53 patients aged 36-65, and 14 patients aged over 65 years old. 28 cases were diagnosed with medial meniscus tear, 43 cases with lateral meniscus tear and 24 cases with both medial and lateral meniscus tear. Causes of the injury included sports, sprain, etc. According to Barrett standard, the clinical healing of meniscus tear was judged. Lysholm score, knee range of motion, visual simulation score (VAS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used to evaluate the postoperative knee function and recovery of the patients. RESULTSThe 95 patients were followed up for 22 to 36 mont