Clinical and functional outcomes of medial meniscus root tear repair compared to other meniscus repairs: A retrospective cohort analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare clinical and patient reported outcome measures among patients who underwent medial meniscus root tear repair compared to patients who underwent other types of meniscus repair. The secondary aim was to identify any associated factors with potential differences in outcomes. Methods: A retrospective review of patients aged 18 and up who underwent medial meniscus repair surgery was performed using CPT codes. Patients with concomitant ipsilateral knee surgery were excluded. Patients were separated into two groups: those who underwent medial meniscus root tear repair, and those who underwent other type of meniscus repair. Patient demographics and patient reported outcome measures were compared between the two groups at the 2-week, 6-week, 3 month, 6-month, and 12-month time periods. Results: There were 224 patients total, with 40 patients in the MMRT group and 184 patients in the Other tear type group. The MMRT Group were significantly older (p < 0.001), had a higher BMI (p = 0.015), and had a higher incidence of tears on the left side than the Other Group (p – 0.025). Pre-operatively The only significant groupwise difference in PROMs was that patients in the MMRT Group reported lower (worse) scores on KOOS Pain (p = 0.019). There was no significant difference in patient reported outcome measures in patients who underwent MMRT repair compared to patients who underwent other types of repair at any time point post-operatively. Conclusions: Patients with MMRT were older, had higher BMI, and had a higher proportion of females than males. Post-operatively, patients who underwent MMRT repair had similar outcomes and similar rates of improvement compared to patients who underwent Other types of meniscus repair.