Purpose: To evaluate the survivorship and clinical outcomes of meniscal allograft transplantations (MAT) and determine the impact cartilage status may have on these outcomes.
Summary:
45 MATs from 42 patients were included in the survivorship analysis with a mean follow-up of 8.6 years.
There was not a significant difference in survivorship between gender, age, sidedness or medial versus lateral MAT but patients older than 35 did have a higher failure rate.
Patients with an Outerbridge Cartilage Score (OCS) of 0-2 at the time of surgery had 100% survival at an average of 10.6 years of follow-up.
Patients with an OCS 3-4 had a 74.2% survival at 7.1 years mean follow-up.
The overall survival rate was 82.2%. Four patients required a conversion to total knee arthroplasty and 4 required meniscal graft excision.
Patients with an OCS 0-2 had significant improvements in Lysholm and Tegner scores but insignificant improvement in IKDC and Oxford Knee Scores (OKS). Those with an OCS 3-4 had significant improvements in all outcome measures except the Tegner.
JRF Ortho Take Away: MAT has shown to be an effective surgical treatment with good survivorship and functional outcomes at medium to long term follow-up. Patients with lower grades of cartilage damage have better MAT survivorship but all patients benefit clinically.
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Authors: Ahmed Mahmoud, James Young, Joanne Bullock-Saxton, Peter Myers
Published: "Meniscal Allograft Transplantation: Effect of Cartilage Status on Survivorship & Clinical Outcome". Arthroscopy, February 23, 2018
Institution: Griffith University Brisbane Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre